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 COMMENTARY ON THE
NEW TESTAMENT VOL. 3
EPHESIANS - PHILEMON
by Rev. W. B. Godbey, A.M.
 2

COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT

VOL III EPHESIANS-PHILEMON

PAUL, THE CHAMPION THEOLOGIAN

BY

REV. W. B. GODBEY, A. M.,

Author of “Commentary, Volumes I and II;” “Spiritual Gifts and Graces,”

“Holy Land,” “Victory,” “Holiness or Hell,” “Christian Perfection,”
“Sanctification,” “Baptism,” and “Woman Preacher.”
 3

PROLOGUE TO VOLUME 3
Pursuant to the glory of full salvation, we are still steaming up the river, all
of our predecessors having floated down.
This volume contains only the Pauline writings. Hence we all sit at the feet
of the world’s champion theologian, so celebrated for prolixity of
sentences, profundity of thought, gigantic interpretation of intellect, and
illimitable spiritual illumination.

PROLOGUE TO EPHESIANS

Ephesus, the New York of Asia Minor, the metropolis of Lydia, the
kingdom of Croesus, the richest king of the ancient world, whose capital
was Sardis, was celebrated as the commercial emporium of the great West,
and the metropolis of polytheistic idolatry, and the location of the temple
Diana, which occupied two hundred years in building, and was one of the
Seven Wonders of the World; the other six being the Pyramids of Egypt,
the Walls of Babylon, the Colossus at Rhodes, the Coliseum at Rome, the
temple of Jupiter at Athens, and the Sphinx at Egypt. Apollos, the learned
Alexandrine Jew, having been brought up under the auspices of Ptolemy
Philadelphus, the celebrated patron of learning, who accumulated at
Alexandria the largest library in the world, came all the way from Egypt to
enjoy the wonderful preaching of John the Baptist. Gloriously converted,
he became the most eloquent preacher of the age, traveling through Africa
and Asia, everywhere holding the listening multitudes spellbound by his
unparalleled oratorical power. He enjoyed the honor of planting the
Gospel Church in Ephesus, organizing with twelve members. Fortunately
in the good providence of God, Aquila and Priscilla, exiled Jews from
Rome, having been gloriously sanctified under Paul’s ministry at Corinth,
and called to preach the living Word, falling into Apollos’ meetings, though
thrilled, spellbound, and edified by his transcendent eloquence, readily
perceived his spiritual deficiency, and, inviting him home with them,
availed themselves of the opportunity to teach him “the way of the Lord
more perfectly.” Thus, a humble layman and his wife lead the most
 4
eloquent preacher in the world into the glorious experience of entire
sanctification. Henceforth he added to his transcendent eloquence the
infinitely greater enduement of spiritual dynamite, everywhere mightily
proving to the Jews, by the Scriptures, that Jesus is the Christ. (Acts
18:28.)
Paul, in his peregrinations, comes to Ephesus, finds the little Church of
twelve members, and interviews them straight, “Have you received the
Holy Ghost since you believed?” Receiving a negative answer, he proceeds
at once to inaugurate a holiness meeting, preaching to them their glorious
privilege in Christ, calling them to the altar to seek entire sanctification.
While Paul exhorts, prays, and lays hands on them, the Holy Ghost comes
on them, sanctifying, filling, and thrilling them so they speak fluently and
prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:3:
“He that prophesieth, speaketh unto people edification,
exhortation, and comfort.”
Now Paul was a bloodwashed and firebaptized band of twelve, enjoying
the perfect freedom of speech, and ready for the most efficient cooperation
in the salvation of souls. A modern wiseacre would have said: “Paul, why
do you not preach to Sinners, who everywhere throng this city, going
down to hell?” As Paul first preached sanctification to the little band till he
got them filled with the Holy Ghost, he then had twelve heroic helpers to
push the war to the gate of the enemy. Wonderfully did God bless their
labors as they pushed the battle in a three years’ protracted-meeting,
rolling out the wave till “all Asia heard the Word.”
 5

CHAPTER 1

1. “Apostle” is a Greek word, and means “sent forth.” We see here that
Christ sends the apostle, through the will of God.

ARGUMENT 1 — THE HEAVENLIES AND SANCTIFICATION

3. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
blessed us in all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies.” The Greek word is
an adjective noun, and very infelicitously translated heavenly places. You
see “places” is italicized in the English, showing that it is not in the
original. Men always make a mistake when they undertake to help out
God, as he does not need any help. Hence, in reading your English Bible,
you would get better sense out of it if you omit all of the italicized words.
Here we see what a limitation the added word “places” puts on the
inspired word “heavenly,” restricting it to mere location; whereas it has a
glorious, infinitesimal signification. It means heavenly peace, rest, comfort,
happiness, submission, obedience, faith, joy, and victory. We are here in
the kingdom of omnipotent grace, preparatory to a world of ineffable
glory. This Greek word, heavenlies, occurs repeatedly in this epistle,
ringing out the glorious battle-cry. Hence, it is the great salient truth of this
wonderful letter, exhibiting the highest type of spirituality in the New
Testament, a logical sequence from the glorious foundation laid by Paul in
the sanctification of the twelve charter members whom he found on his
arrival. Only the people having Heaven in them will ever pass the pearly
portals. Equally true that the inmates of Hell all take their hell with them
into the regions of endless woe. These heavenly graces are not reached in
justification, but sanctification. Our Savior is the paragon Exemplar of
Christian saintship. He never enjoyed the peace of pardon, from the
simple fact that he had no sins to be pardoned. But he always enjoyed the
peace of purity. Hence we must reach entire sanctification in order to
enjoy our Savior’s peace, rest, submission, faith, obedience, joy,
happiness, love, and victory. These constitute the heavenly experiences,
only attainable in entire sanctification, and indispensable to our admission
into heaven.
 6
5-8. “In love having predestinated us unto sonship in himself through
Jesus Christ.” Here is a beautiful allusion to the Father’s love, which
moved him to interpose the wonderful redemptive scheme.
“O for this love let rocks and hills
Their lasting silence break,
And all harmonious human tongues
Their Savior’s praises speak.
Angels, assist our mighty joys;
Strike all your harps of gold;
But when you reach your highest notes,
His love can ne’er be told.”

ARGUMENT 2 — ALL THINGS REHEADED IN CHRIST

10. “In the dispensation of the fullness of the seasons, to rehead all things
in Christ, those things in the heavens and those things upon the earth.”
Where the English says, “gather together,” the Greek is
anakephalaiosasthai, from ana, again, and kephalaion, the head. Hence, it
means to rehead all things in Christ, both in the heavens and upon the
earth. When God created this world, he constituted Adam and Eve the
united head. When the devil succeeded in their abduction, he cut the head
off of the world, thus leaving the poor, fallen world without a head. In the
glorious restitution, Christ is going to glorify humanity, and restore him
back to the headship of the world. In the fall, Satan destroyed spiritual life
in humanity, thus cutting man’s head off. All the senses are in the head.
Hence man, without a head, has no eyes to see hell open before him, no
ears to hear the hideous groans of the damned and the dismal drumbeat of
his own perdition, no nose to smell the brimstone, no tongue to taste the
devil’s filthy tobacco which would nauseate a dog, and no nerves to feel
the awful trepidation inspired by an eternity of woe. This is the reason
why the millions of this poor, lost world are rushing at racehorse speed
into hell. In regeneration the Lord restores back your head, which you lost
in the fall; in sanctification radically exterminating the counterfeit head,
which the devil has put on all sinners. Christ will also, in due time, rehead
this fallen world, restoring its Edenic glory, sanctifying by fire and
transforming it into a heaven, committing it to the glorified saints and
unfallen angels, to shine and shout through all eternity. The English word,
heaven, is heavens in the Greek, corroborating astronomy in the infinite
 7
multiplicity of celestial worlds, all of which were more or less affected by
the fall of this world. (Hebrews 9:23.) Hence, the work of Christ will not
only restore this world to its perfect celestial loyalty, but so confirm all
other worlds as to effectually fortify them against the liability of future
apostasy.
11,12. Here, again, we have a beautiful allusion to the predestination of the
saints in harmony with the sweet will of God, “who, beforehand, had hope
in Christ.” This is a beautiful allusion to the glorious millennial harvest, of
which the saints, in the gospel dispensation, are the first fruits.

ARGUMENT 3 — THE LETTER SEALED

13. “In which you also, having heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise.” Paul (2 Corinthians 3:3) tells us that we are God’s
letters,
“written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.”
Hence, we see that regeneration transforms us into God’s letters, to be
read by this wicked world, who will not read the Bible. Hence God’s plan
is to save the world through his saints. When a letter is written, the seeing
becomes indispensable, in order to secure the contents against theft, as
Satan is a great rogue, and is certain to steal out the letter and the money.
Hence, you see by these beautiful similes that regeneration writes the
letter, and sanctification seals it. When the letter is written, and sent out
into this thievish world unsealed, it will not long retain its contents. Some
thieving demon will surely spoliate it soon or late, leaving nothing but the
old, empty envelope.
The ordinary Church member of the present day has nothing but an old,
dirty envelope, carrying it round, a laughing-stock for devils, tickled over
his silly delusion, thinking he has a letter of introduction to heaven, when
he has nothing but an old, empty envelope. Now, reader, be sure that the
Holy Ghost writes you a good letter in regeneration, and then seals it in
sanctification.
 8
ARGUMENT 4 — THE HOLY GHOST AND REDEMPTION
14. “Who is the earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of the
possession, unto the praise of His glory.”
The Holy Ghost, personally received in sanctification, is the first
installment of the heavenly fruition, destined to sweep on with ever-
increasing delight and eternally accumulating rapture through the flight of
the heavenly ages. The indwelling God, in the person of the Holy Ghost, is
the secret of heavenly bliss. We receive him as an indwelling Comforter in
the experience of entire sanctification to abide forever.
The “redemption” in this passage is the glorification of mind and spirit,
and the transfiguration of the body at the second coming of Christ,
transforming the saints of the bridehood into the similitude of his own
glorious body, to shine and shout forever.
15. “Therefore I, hearing the faith with you in the Lord Jesus, and the
Divine love toward all the saints,
16. “Do not cease giving thanks in your behalf, making mention of you in
my prayers.” The globe of salvation contains two hemispheres; i.e., faith,
which is the human side; and love, the Divine. Faith is the only human
condition of salvation; it is the only hand competent to receive the things
of God, — repentance on the part of the sinner, to put him on believing
ground for justification by faith, while entire consecration is the sine qua
non indispensable to put the Christian on believing ground, where he can
be sanctified by faith. The sinner can not exercise faith for pardon unless
he is on believing ground, which is the utter and eternal abnegation of all
his sins; while it is equally true that no Christian can be sanctified by faith
till he gets on believing ground, which is a radical and unequivocal
consecration of all to God for time and eternity. “Love” here is agape,
divine love, in contradistinction to philia, human love, which is peculiar to
fallen humanity, and destitute of saving grace. The rich man had it in hell;
so he wanted to send a missionary to his brothers, to keep them out of
that awful doom. This love is the Divine nature (1 John 4:16), and is only
native in the heart of God, transmitted to us by the Holy Ghost by
regeneration. (Romans 5:5.) Hence this love is exotic in the human heart,
while the philia is indigenous. Popular religion stops with this human love,
 9
which is utterly destitute of salvation, and lets the people fall into hell like
Dives. It is utterly impossible for any one to possess this Divine love till
the Holy Ghost pours it out in the heart.
18. “The eyes of your heart having been enlightened.” Man is a Trinity,
consisting of spirit, soul, or heart, all of which are synonymous, and used
interchangeably in common parlance. The rank and file of the preachers at
the present day are dichotomists; i.e., advocates of the two natures in
humanity, confounding and identifying spirit and mind, and consequently
preaching mentalities for spiritualities, and utterly heretical so far as gospel
truth is concerned. The Bible everywhere teaches trichotomy; i.e., the
three natures of humanity, spirit, mind, and body. The spirit is the man
himself, consisting of the conscience, the will, and the affections. The
conscience survived the fall, and still rings out the voice of God in the soul.
The will is the king of humanity, adroitly manipulated by Satan for the
damnation of the sinner, but completely wrested out of his hands, and
turned over to God by the Holy Ghost in regeneration. Still, a world
survives in the profound regions of the affections till utterly eradicated and
expurgated by the cleansing blood, applied through the Holy Ghost in the
second work of grace; i.e., entire sanctification.
The heart has all the senses; i.e., sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, like
the body. But though a dead man have all these organs, he is utterly
destitute of sensation. So it is with the heart of the sinner till quickened
into life by the Holy Spirit. The human soul in the fall was utterly bereft
of life. Hence total depravity applies only to the spiritual nature; the
mental and physical suffering only partial depravity. Hence the wholesale
delusion of the dualistic theology, which winks at the pure spirituality of
humanity, substituting intellectualism, thus building up pompous
Churches on the mental and physical elements, intermitting the spiritual,
and thus letting the souls of their people slip through their fingers into hell.
The Christian religion is not materialism nor intellectualism, but pure
spirituality, inwrought by the Holy Ghost.
19,20,21. “Placing Him on his right hand in the heavenlies above all the
government, authority, power, and lordship, and every name named not
only in this age, but in that which is to come.” The Greek aion, erroneously
translated “world,” means age. Hence, we see that this is not the last age of
 10
this world, but it is to be followed by the glorious millennium, and
afterward by the illimitable heavenly ages, sweeping on through all
eternity.

ARGUMENT 5 — THE CHURCH THE CLIMAX OF CREATION

22,23. “And He hath subordinated all things beneath his feet, and gave him
head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him
who filleth all in all.”
We learn in the Pauline epistles that the personal Son created all the worlds
throughout the celestial universe, as well as all the angels, archangels,
cherubim, and seraphim. Hence, we find that Omnipotence becomes
creative in the person of the Son. Ekklesia, from ek, out, and kaleo, to call,
means Church throughout the Greek Testament. If you do not remember
that definition, you will fall into utter bewilderment on the Church idea,
led astray by the Churchism of the present day, which is utterly variant
from, and antagonistical to the New Testament ekklesia, which consisted
only of the souls called out of the world, and separated unto God. Hence
all worldly Churches are simply Satan’s counterfeits. This Divine
Ekklesia, the New Testament Church, is here affirmed to be the climax of
all creation, the highest conception of the Divine mind, and the grandest
culmination of all the stupendous works wrought by Omnipotence
throughout the celestial universe, towering transcendently in the Divine
estimation, not only above all the stupendous worlds that speed their
precipitate flight through the void immense, chasing each other around the
effulgent Throne, but actually transcending all the heavenly hierarchies,
that flame and radiate through millions of immortal worlds. O the
unutterable glory which God has in reservation for the Church of the First-
born! The infinite possibilities in reservation for redeemed humanity
beggar the flight of the most stalwart imagination! Glory to God in the
highest!
 11

CHAPTER 2

TOTAL DEPRAVITY
1. Total depravity is most unequivocally taught in this verse. Depravity
means being deprived. Total means altogether. “Hence, total depravity
means utterly deprived of Divine life.” When God calls a man “dead,” rest
assured there is no life in him. Spiritual life was lost by the fall, and is only
regained in regeneration. Total depravity is only true of the human spirit,
the mind and body being only partially depraved. Hence, Satan in all ages
has been busy building up false religions on the residuum of mentality and
materiality surviving in fallen humanity.
2. “...According to the age of this world, according to the Prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.”
When the bright day of Eden went into eclipse, a dismal night of six
thousand years supervened. We are still groping in Satan’s night, but anon
cheered by inspiring rays of the glorious millennial dawn. Satan is
generalissimo of hell’s belligerent armies, begirding the globe, and doing
their utmost for the damnation of the world. These panoplied millions are
all destined to retreat back into the bottomless pit, where the apocalyptic
angel chains their commander-in-chief. (Revelation 20:3.)
3. Here we have a vivid description of the unregenerate living in perpetual
obedience to their fallen, sensual, and diabolical predilections.
4,5. We see here, in harmony with the great inspired curriculum, that the
unutterable love of God for lost humanity superinduced the redemptive
scheme. “Quicken” is suzoopoieo, from zoe, life, and poieo, to create.
Therefore, the regeneration of a sinner by the Holy Ghost is an actual de
novo creation, as literal and unequivocal as the creation of a world out of
nothing. This is in harmony with the absolute total depravity of the sinner,
everywhere revealed by the word “death,” which would be impertinent if
there were a spark of life in the sinner’s soul. Hence, the human spirit of a
sinner is as dead as a devil in hell, till Divine life is actually created in that
spirit by the Holy Spirit. Hence, the radical trouble in the and holiness
Churches is not the want of sanctification, but regeneration, which always
 12
reaches out for sanctification. The rosewater gospel of the popular
Churches is utterly ignorant of the Bible type of regeneration, in which the
Holy Ghost comes into the dead soul with the same de faco creative power
which flung worlds from the creative fiat into ethereal space.

ARGUMENT 7 — RACE ALONE AND FAITH ALONE

ANTITHETICAL
i.e., the truth of the one is the confirmation of the other. Like Siamese
twins, they live and die together. The buncombe gospel of the popular
Churches is alike destitute of both of these cardinal truths.
7. “...In order that he may shew forth in coming ages the excellent riches of
his grace in goodness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Through the flight of
eternal ages, while we soar from world to world amid the splendors of the
boundless celestial empire, commingling with the bright unfallen
intelligence’s from millions of immortal worlds, God will put us on
commendatory exhibition as miracles of his grace and wonders of his love.
8. “For by grace ye have been saved, that not of yourselves, the gift of
God;
9. “Not of works, in order that no one may boast.” O the transcendent
clearness and boldness of apostolic preaching and Christian testimony, in
contrast with the indefinite supposititious ambiguity of modern Church
members! These Ephesian Christians were not simply indulging a hope to
be saved when they died, but they already enjoyed the assurance of a
personal salvation as a positive experience received through simple faith as
the gift of God, utterly independent of their own works. While a truly
justifying and sanctifying faith is always operative and fruitful of good
works, we are neither justified nor sanctified by the works, but by the
faith alone.
As our salvation throughout is the free and unmerited gift of God in Christ,
it is essentially by grace alone on the Divine side, received and
appropriated by faith alone, constituting the human counterpart of the
gracious economy. When we surrender the doctrine of faith alone, we
simultaneously, as a logical sequence, abnegate that of grace alone, and rob
God of his glory. The Churches of the present day are full of legalism; i. e.,
 13
salvation by works, which is Satan’s greased plank on which to slide the
people into hell, as our works of righteousness are “filthy rags” in the sight
of God, nothing but the work of his immaculate Son being competent to
endure the severity of the Divine judgments. The modern maxim, “Church
loyalty,” is delusive and dangerous, impressing the people that they will
be saved if true to the human institutions of their poor, worldly Churches.
Be loyal to God alone, and then you will be true to your Church and
everything else that is right. Is faith the gift of God? Then, if he withholds
it, I am hopelessly lost. “That not of yourselves, the gift of God.” In this
Scripture “that” does not refer to faith (as the Greek positively reveals),
but to salvation. Faith is not the gift of God in any practical sense, but the
act of the creature. The simple solution is, God gives us all the power we
need. to believe his word and trust his promises. Yet the act of believing is
my own. I can believe, and be saved; or disbelieve, and be damned. (Mark
16:16.) The power by which we believe is the Spirit, whom the Father
gives to all more freely than we give good gifts to our children, if we only
ask him. (Luke 11:13.) If you have not the clear evidence of complete
personal salvation, your faith is deficient. God gives you the power to
believe in answer to your prayer. Hence, you have not prayed enough.
Pray on till you reach believing ground, where you will be enabled to
exercise faith for justification as a sinner, for sanctification as a Christian,
and you will soon know assuredly that you enjoy the long-sought victory
in your soul.

ARGUMENT 8 — CREATED FOR THE END

10. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good
works, which God before prepared, that we may walk in them.” We do not
plant two trees simply for their own sake, but for the fruit they produce.
Pursuant to this metaphor, God created us for the good works we will
perform in this world, and others through the flight of eternal ages. While
God’s plan is to save this lost world through human instrumentality, we
must remember that this fleeting probation is but a drop when compared
with the boundless ocean of eternity. When God takes me out of this
world, I think it will be because he has more use for me in another sphere,
where I shall adore his majesty, magnify his mercy and grace, and do his
will through all eternity. Methinks he will send me away to preach to the
 14
newly-created inhabitants of newborn worlds, and thus fortify them
against the liability of apostasy, and establish them in the Divine loyalty.
Who would be more suitable for this great and important work than we
who have passed through Satan’s flint-mills? This fleeting life disqualifies
us for enterprises of illimitable magnitude. When once probation is passed,
and immortality supervenes, we can deliberately launch enterprises
sweeping on through myriads of ages, as we are assured of our own
survival till their completion.
11,12. We now enter upon a beautiful paragraph expository of the Jewish
and Gentile correlation to the gracious economy. The Christian Church
began all Jews. In a century it underwent a radical somersault, the Jewish
element evanescing, and the Gentile coming in, till the latter unanimously
preponderated.
“Having no hope and atheists in the world,” reveals the sad condition of
the whole Gentile world before reached by the gospel. Where the English
says, “without God,” the Greek is atheos, atheists. When we consider the
fact that the Egyptians, Hindus, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans were
all intensely religious, their cities radiant with the dazzling domes and
glittering spires of the gorgeous temples erected to their gods, many of
which stand this day, the wonder of the world (I saw them in 1895), a sad
conclusion as to the spiritual condition of earth’s millions this day
supervenes. All these Gentile worshipers in Paul’s day were the apostasy
of the patriarchal dispensation of the Christian religion. So Romanism and
many Protestant Churches are now the apostasy of the apostolic
dispensation. The legitimate conclusion follows from these utterances of
the Holy Ghost, that all the people who are not personally acquainted
with the true God in the supernatural birth are in the gross darkness of
practical atheism.
13-16. “...Destroying the enmity, the law of commandments in creeds:...
slaying the enmity on it.” These verses clearly set forth the fact that when
Christ died on the cross, he swept all human authority from the field.

ARGUMENT 10 — THE CROSS SETTLES EVERYTHING

From these inspired statements we have the clear and unequivocal
revelation that when Christ died on the cross, he utterly destroyed human
 15
depravity (i.e., made ample provisions for its total extermination),
eternally nullifying all human authority, as involved in the word
“ordinances,” which does not mean Divine ordinances, but human creeds,
decrees, opinions, and authorities, which have put a thousand heavy yokes
of spiritual tyranny and despotism on the necks of all ages and nations.
The cross of Christ not only redeems the world from all sin, which is the
devil’s yoke of bondage, but from all human usurpations, institutions, and
authorities, sweeping forever from the field of controversy every autocrat,
whether human or diabolical, and thus completely and eternally
emancipating every human being in every land and climate. Therefore,
there is nothing left for the vilest reprobate and the most menial vassal of
Satan’s drudgery and the most cringing servitor of ecclesiastical despotism,
but to look up to the cross, claim your freedom, and raise the shout of
victory. There is nothing left for you to do but shout, since your
Omnipotent Christ has heroically done everything else. He has braved the
storms of earth and hell, conquered sin, Satan, men, and devils, leaving
nothing for you to do but accept the victory and raise the shout.
17,18. We see here that the Jews, though sunk deep in dead formality and
hollow hypocrisy, were nearer God than the heathen world. Though the
popular Churches of the present day are in the same awful dilemma, they
are nearer God and more accessible to the truth than the infidel, pleasure-
seeking, worldly rabble. “Through him we both have access by one Spirit
to the Father.” The Holy Ghost is the Divine personality of God on the
earth, sent forth by the Father sitting on the throne of the universe, and the
Son encumbering the mediatorial kingdom. He alone can reveal the Son, and
through him give us access to the Father. Hence, in the nature of the Divine
economy, the rejection of the Holy Ghost is the awful finale, out of which
there is no retreat; i.e., the unpardonable sin.

ARGUMENT 11 — THE CHURCH HOUSE OF THE HOLY GHOST

19,20. “Built upon the foundation of the apostle and prophets, Jesus Christ
being the chief cornerstone.” These are the New Testament prophets; i.e.,
the fire-baptized preachers who, along with the apostles, under God
became the custodians of the apostolic Church. As we are living in the
New Testament dispensation, Old Testament symbolism, types, and
 16
shadows, all fulfilled in Christ, having evanesced, are superseded by the
glorious spiritual entities and transcendent experimental holiness of the
full-orbed gospel dispensation.
21. “In whom the whole house jointed together groweth into a holy temple
in the Lord.
22. “In whom you also are built up into a habitation of God in the Spirit.”
The Pauline eloquence here is sublime as he floats out on the wing of
inspiration in his vivid and glorious description of the Divine Ekklesia; i.e.,
the gospel Church, built upon the inspired Word of the New Testament
writers, Jesus Christ, the central pillar, supporting the grand
superstructure, destined to tower forever, the admiration of angels and
archangels, the inspiring theme of cherubim and seraphim, the
contemplative glory of God, to the eternal bewilderment of the heavenly
hierarchies. This is the glorified Church of the First Born, “without spot or
wrinkle.”
The members of this Church are not joined in, but born into it by the
supernatural intervention of the Holy Ghost.
This is none of your worldly Churches, as the very word for Church,
Ekklesia, means the called out of the world; while hagiadzoo, sanctify,
means to take the world out of you. Hence, all the members of the New
Testament Church have a double reason for being unworldly; the one
because they have come out of the world, and left it; and the other, because
the world has been taken out of them. Hence, there is a double divorcement
between them and the world. Good Lord, open your eyes to see the
difference between the devil’s worldly Churches and God’s Church
outside of the world, and the world all taken out of it. The ostensible and
universal peculiarity of this Church is, as Paul here says: “It is the
habitation of God in the Spirit; i.e., it is the house of the Holy Ghost, in
which he constantly dwells. It is our privilege to enjoy that spiritual gift,
denominated (1 Corinthians 12) “Discernment of spirits.” How awfully
blind the masses of the Churches, and even preachers, at the present day!
In these striking fulfillments of the latter-day prophecies, when the world
is filled with fallen Churches, no honest soul enjoying spiritual
discernment can fail to recognize the lamentable absence of the Holy Ghost
in the Churches. No wonder; for he alone has a right to rule his own
 17
Church, his house, as you rule your own house. Hence, the rule is taken
out of his hands when it is committed to a giggling choir and an
unconverted Official Board, who insult God by refusing to bow the knee in
his house.
Of course, amid those sad environments the Holy Ghost quietly retreats
away, leaving the devil, whose servants they are, to run the machinery on
the ad libium line of socials, frolics, festivals, and fandangoes. The children
of God are horrified at the hollow hypocrisy, dead formality, and worldly
flippancy of the so-called Churchism of the present day. When you go to a
church, and do not find the Holy Ghost, by his mournful absence you
know of a surety it is not the Church of God; from the simple fact here
stated that the Church of God is his “habitation in the spirit.” If you are
walking in the light of God, and the merest tyro in the kingdom, you can
not fail to recognize his presence or his absence in these meetings. The
holiness movement represents the Church of God on the earth at the
present day, pursuant to the test of the spiritual presence and rulership as
here specified in the infallible Word. It is beautiful to contemplate the
universal Church of the Triune God, this day “girdling the globe with
salvation and holiness unto the Lord.” I have traveled in forty States in the
Union, and in Europe, Asia, and Africa, everywhere recognizing the
beautiful identity of God’s Church, simple, spiritual, Scriptural, winning
victories for Christ on her knees, and shouting the battle-cry. Satan’s
counterfeit Churches exhibit an endless diversity of creeds, forms, and
ceremonies. God’s Church is one and the same beneath every sky, from
the icy poles to the equatorial deserts; everywhere recognizable for New
Testament simplicity, and the presence of the Holy Ghost. Lord, shine on
us from above, that we may ever discern between God’s genuine and
Satan’s counterfeit!
 18

CHAPTER 3

Paul dictated this letter to Luke, his faithful amanuensis, while preaching in
his “hired house” in Rome, whither he arrived in the chains of his
Jerusalem imprisonment in February, A .D . 61. He spent two years
preaching in his city mission; meanwhile he wrote this epistle and those to
Colossians and Philemon.
2-4. The word “mystery” leads the revelation in these verses. God’s work,
like himself, is all a profound mystery, utterly inscrutable to aliens,
however gifted and cultured. No sinner can have the vaguest conception of
regeneration till he gets it; while sanctification is equally indissoluble
mystery to all the unsanctified, even though they be clergymen of the
highest rank. No living man has the slightest conception of what
transfiguration is experimentally. We must content ourselves in utter
ignorance of that transcendent grace till this mortal puts on immortality.
Hence, the logical inconsistency of unsanctified people having the audacity
to criticize that sweet grace of which they are ignorant as baboons.
5-7. Here we learn that this mystery can be revealed even to the holy
apostles and prophets of the new dispensation only by the Holy Ghost.
The omnipotent Spirit, the successor and revealer of the glorified Christ,
alone is competent to reveal the unfathomable mysteries of regeneration to
a sinner, and sanctification to a Christian. No human power nor ingenuity
could ever eradicate the deep-seated prejudices alienating races, colors, sex,
and nationalities, such as the impassable chasm between Jews and
Samaritans. But the deep illuminations and radical revolutions of the Holy
Ghost opened the Gentile world to Jewish evangelism.

ARGUMENT 12 — PAUL LESS THAN THE LEAST

8. This statement of the apostle, involving the widest hyperbole, is to be
understood purely experimentally. While Paul was doubtless intellectually,
spiritually, educationally, heroically, and experimentally, the greatest saint
on the earth, why did he say he was less than the least? He was not
speaking exegetically, but experimentally. Humility is the fundamental and
most important Christian grace. When John Fletcher was asked, “What is
 19
the most important grace?” he responded, “Humility.” Then they asked
him what was next in importance. He answered, “Humility;” and likewise
to the third question, he still said, “Humility.” Fletcher was so meek and
lowly that he seemed more like an angel than a man. When John Wesley
preached his funeral, he said: “There lies in that coffin the most saintly
man I ever saw, neither expect to meet another such till I go to glory.”
While Paul was great in learning, experience, labors, persecutions, and
sufferings, he was proportionately great in humility, feeling as every truly
humble saint that he was the least of all, and indulging the quaint Oriental
hyperbole, “less than the least.”
9-12. Christ himself is the incarnation of the entire plan of salvation. His
birth in Bethlehem is regeneration incarnate, and his death on the cross is
sanctification.
11. “According to the plan of the ages, which he made in Christ Jesus our
Lord.”
Eden was the first age, followed by the Antediluvian, the Patriarchal, the
Mosaic, the Messianic, and, finally, the Apostolic, all consecutively
preparing the world for the millennial kingdom and the endless reign of
Christ, unanimously illustrating the universally patent fact of man’s
redemption under the most encouraging circumstances, and indisputably
confirming the sad conclusion of man’s hopeless failure under most
auspicious omens, and establishing beyond all possible controversy his
absolute dependence on God. While man’s hopeless failure sends a
mournful wail around the world, reverberating down the ages from Eden to
the millennium, echo takes up the glad refrain, and roars round the world,
“God is a success, and has never known failure.”
12. “In whom we have boldness and access in confidence through the faith
of himself.” In the justified experience we have faith in God more or less
encumbered by doubt. In the sanctified experience, we have the faith of
God perfectly free from doubt; i.e., the faith of Jesus himself, which was
never contaminated.
13. Paul here certifies that all of his persecutions and tribulations only
added richer luster and glory to the Church of Christ.
 20
14. We here see that Paul was a stickler for genuflection indefatigable in the
knee-drill. In Hebrews 12:11, Apollos exhorts the people to bend their
“paralyzed knees.” Satan’s knee-paralysis has just about robbed the
popular Churches of the last vestige of Christian devotion. The angels in
heaven not only bow the knee, but fall prostrate in delectable devotion to
the great Jehovah. All whoever shall go up to live with God in heaven must
reach the heavenly state in this life, which makes us worship, not like
proud Pharisees, but adoring angels.
15. Here we find that the same cognomen designates God’s people in
heaven and in earth, one unbroken family temporarily partitioned by the
starry firmament. That name is given(Isaiah 62:10): “They shall be called
the holy people.” It is wonderful how this blind, wicked world
pertinaciously, though ignorantly, fulfills the prophecies. It is a significant
fact that the “second-blessing people” alone are denominated in worldly
parlance, the holiness people. Others may claim to be holy, but the world
stubbornly refuses to call them “holy.” It is a striking and universal
fulfillment of prophecy.
16. “In order that he may grant unto you according to the riches of his
glory, to be strengthened with dynamite by his Spirit in the inner man.”
This “inner man” is created in the heart by the Holy Ghost in regeneration,
the rival of the carnal man born in you by natural regeneration transmitted
from Adam. God’s wonderful dynamite not only gives the “inner man”
dominion over his old rival, but when utilized by sanctifying faith actually
explodes him into smithereens.

ARGUMENT 13 — HAVING BEEN ROOTED

AND GROUNDED IN DIVINE LOVE
17,18. Here we have a double metaphor, involving the two most common
scenes of life; i.e., trees and houses. The frugiculturist supplies his
nurseries with seedlings, whose fruit is utterly worthless. In due time he
cuts off the seedling, and grafts into the trunk the valuable fruit-bearing
twig. After a time of development, he spades up the tree out of the
nursery, trims it excessively, both branch and root, and plants it out in his
orchard forty feet from its nearest comrade. In the nursery it only had
lateral roots; now the tap root penetrates down into the deep interior of
 21
the earth, ‘winds around the great rocks, and holds the tree secure amid the
raging storms, which only bend it hither and thither, circulating the sap and
keeping it from getting bark-bound, bringing in contact with its leaves an
abundance of carbonic acid, so essential to its rapid growth and healthy
development, till soon it bends beneath its load of delicious fruits as the
years go by. We are born of Adam’s race mere seedlings, bearing only the
bitter crab-apples of depravity. The Holy Ghost cuts us down, and grafts
in the Divine nature in regeneration, thus giving us a new heart. If we
spend our lives crowded up in a nursery, we will never do any good, but
all prove failures. The glorious work of entire sanctification must
thoroughly trim us root and branch, take us out of the old nursery, and
transplant us in the open field, where we will have ample room to grow
and bear fruit forever. When I responded to the call of Brother N.H.
Harriman, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Tacoma, Washington, and
preached for him eighteen days amid the wonderful sanctifying power of
the Holy Ghost; when I bade them adieu, he said “Brothers and sisters, we
had a house before this brother came, but the foundation was indifferent
and quite superficial; during the ministry of this brother we have gone
down deep to the bedrock, and laid a great solid foundation on the eternal
strata, which neither men nor devils will ever be able to shake. On this
foundation, by the grace of God, we will build a superstructure which shall
tower forever, the admiration of angels unfallen and the “spirits of just
men made perfect.” In the language of the Holy Ghost, deep and high are
synonymous and interchangeable. When Charlie Tillman, he sweet singer
of the Sunny South, got sanctified, he shouted aloud, “I have sunk to the
top of Pisgab.”

ARGUMENT 14 — THE HYPERBOLE ECLIPSED

“In order that you may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the
breadth, and length, and depth, and height:
19. “And to know the love of Christ which transcendeth knowledge, in
order that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” “Rooted and
grounded” describe entire sanctification in a powerful double metaphor.
Here a wonderful impetus of inspired eloquence fires the soul of Luke’s
enraptured dictator. Rapt in heavenly visions, filled and thrilled with the
Holy Ghost, he soars beyond the range of sun, moon, and stars; amid the
 22
bewilderment of Divine communion and contemplation he gives utterance
to these transcendent hyperboles, and basks in the ineffable glory of the
unseen world. Well does John Fletcher say that “filled with all the fullness
of God” describes a state of grace infinitesimally beyond entire
sanctification. We enter the sanctified experience from the negative
hemisphere, realizing the utter elimination of the sin principle through the
cleansing blood. Having passed the sin side of the experience, we enter the
glorious hemisphere of incoming and super-abounding grace, which is
illimitable in this life, and, superseded by the glory of heaven, sweeps on
in a geometrical ratio through all eternity, ever and anon flooding the soul
with fruitions, amplifications, beatifications, and rhapsodies, eclipsing the
most ecstatic hyperboles. while ages and cycles wheel their precipitate
flight.
20. “But to Him who is able exceedingly above all things which we ask or
think, according to the dynamite which worketh in us.” You may ask what
you will, and lay under contribution all of your thinking powers, yet your
omnipotent Sanctifier will flood you with ineffable surprises, doing for
you infinitely beyond your asking or thinking. No wonder he surprises
you when he has his own dynamite in you, which he manipulates ad
libitum, blowing you up ever and anon into a higher, richer, and sweeter
heavenly communion. The Lord inspire your faith to appropriate these
wonderful promises, and get on shouting ground, world without end!
 23

CHAPTER 4

1. Paul keeps us reminded of the chain on his hands and the soldier by his
side, while he dictated this wonderful truth which is free as a bird of
paradise.
2. Here we have humility, meekness, and long-suffering these three
bottom-rock graces, all in the superlative degree, forever fortifying their
possessor against the liability of falling. When you are down on the
bottom, there is no place into which you can fall. Hence, the Calvinistic
dogma is right if you put it where it belongs, and apply it to a soul
invested with graces of perfect humility, meekness, and longsuffering.
So long as you there abide, you can never fall. You must first imbibe
Satan’s egotism, and climb up before you can fall and break your neck.
3. “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Here
we see that it is our imperative duty to make the needed effort to
perpetuate the unity of the Christian brotherhood, which is in the Spirit.
Hence, we must allow perfect liberty in non-essentials, such as creeds,
forms, and ceremonies, seeking unification only in the Holy Ghost. A
Baptist preacher, during a long run in the car, assaulted me for my heresies
on sanctification, dealing his sledgehammer blows right and left without
distinction or mercy; meanwhile I antagonized him not a word, but ever
and anon endorsed his orthodox utterances. Finally, he desisted from his
arguments, and requested me to speak. I told him my experience of a
glorious conversion in a Baptist revival when sixteen years old, praising
the goodness of God which had kept me from falling forty-six years. Then
I alluded to the terrible spiritual conflict involving the new life in a
desolating civil war with Adam, the first through a period of nineteen
years, fifteen of which in my humble way I endeavored to preach the
gospel; but culminating in such a victory as I never had dreamed of when
the Savior baptized my soul with the Holy Ghost and fire; filling, thrilling,
and flooding me, soul, mind, and body; taking me out of college, of which I
was president, suddenly, unexpectedly, and forever; radically
revolutionizing my ministerial character in every respect, and transforming
me into a flaming revivalist, preparing me every minute to preach and to
 24
die. The shout came into my soul, and staid there twenty-seven years,
getting sweeter and better.
He broke down and wept, saying, “That is just what I have always
wanted, and I will have it or die;” from that moment, while we rode
together, becoming an earnest and appreciative inquirer after the experience
against which he had hurled his logical thunderbolts. Lord, help us all to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace!

ARGUMENT 15 — THE HEAVENLY CHAIN

4-6. Here we have a beautiful golden chain, consisting of seven links, “one
body,” which is the mystical spiritual body of Christ, the Church of the
Firstborn, without spot or wrinkle.
“One Spirit,” the blessed Holy Ghost, the Third Person in the adorable
Trinity, the illuminator, convictor, regenerator, adopter, sanctifier, and
glorifier of fallen humanity. “One hope,” the sweet anticipation of
universal Christendom singing away the lugubrious clouds of human woe,
and spanning the firmament with a thrilling prelibation of coming glory.
“One faith,” the spiritual hand alone competent to receive the things of
God, take Jesus by the hand, and turn over to him the battle of life,
shouting victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. ‘One baptism;”
we take it for granted that no one reading these pages will be so foggy as to
see water here in this beautiful golden chain of seven links, which lifts
humanity up to God; you would not be so inadvertent as to insert a water
link, as in that case your chain would be weak as water, and lift no soul up
to glory. This is most assuredly the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire
(Matthew 3:2), administered by our Savior to his own children exclusively.
You must not mar the spiritual homogeneity of this beautiful gospel chain,
by inserting a water link. Again, beware that you do not nullify the unity
of Christian baptism by a baptism of fire, distinct from that of the Spirit.
There is no danger of your having too much fire nor too much water; the
latter the symbol, and the former concomitant of the spiritual baptism
administered by the omnipotent Sanctifier. “One God;” we must beware of
heresies on all lines, and not emphasize the three persons of the Trinity so
forcibly as to drift into the dogma of three gods. There is but “one God,”
 25
of whom the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three distinct persons,
accommodatory to finite apprehension and the redemptive scheme.
7. “To each one of us grace has been given according to the measure of the
gift of Christ.” We should never measure other peoples corn by our half-
bushel, as God will attend to measuring their corn as well as ours. We who
have long enjoyed the experience of entire sanctification, should deal very
tenderly with young converts and weak believers, if we discourage them,
remembering that infinite diversity of spiritual idiosyncrasies and
magnitude characterizes the kingdom of God.

ARGUMENT 16 — THE DESCENSION AND

ASCENSION OF CHRIST
8-10. The reader would do well here to exchange this book for Volume 2,
and read the Commentary on 1 Peter 3:19. It takes in this whole subject,
and corroboratively expounds this Scripture. When our Savior expired on
the cross, his human soul descended into hell (Acts 2:31); the herald of his
own victory achieved on Mount Calvary having triumphed over the
pandemonium, he crosses the chasm (Luke 16:26) impassable to all finite
beings, enters the intermediate paradise, called Abraham’s bosom, meets
the thief according to promise (Luke 23:43), and all the Old Testament
saints there awaiting the verification of the Abrahamic covenant by the
sufferings of Christ; on the third morning, abolishing the intermediate
paradise, leads them all up, receives his body out of the sepulcher, all the
mighty hosts of Old Testament saints accompanying him during his forty
day on the earth, invisible because disembodied, and ascend with him into
heaven from Mount Olivet; constituting his triumphal procession, as seen
by the prophetic eye of David (Psalm 24), they enter the glorified city of
God amid the shouts of angels, archangels, and redeemed spirits. “Christ,
the first-fruits of them that slept,” must lead the way into heaven,
throwing wide the pearly gates for every disembodied saint in all coming
ages to sweep with a shout.

ARGUMENT 17 — GIFTS FOR PERFECTING THE SAINTS

11. Here, we see, the ministerial curriculum of the gospel dispensation
includes “apostles,” who are the pioneers sent out into every country
 26
under heaven; e.g., Bishop Taylor in Africa, and Hudson Taylor in interior
China, and many others exploring the heathen world at the present day.
“Prophets,” (1 Corinthians 14:3)
“He that prophesieth speaketh to men edification,
exhortation, and comfort.”
The Greek and Hebrew words for prophecy mean to boil up and flow out
like an artesian well, never ceasing. On the day of Pentecost their tongues
were split, each prong on fire, one to preach hellfire to sinners, and the
other heavenly fire, to sanctify the Christians. It is the privilege of all
sanctified people to receive the spirit of prophecy, which is the normal
qualification for preaching the gospel. O how the world is perishing today
for the spirit of prophecy! The Lord raise them up in platoons! Next
“evangelists.” This word in Greek is the concrete of which gospel is the
abstract. The evangelist travels to the end of the earth in the fulfillment of
the latter-day prophecies. Daniel 12:4
“Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”
In the last year I have traveled in twenty-one States, having more calls
everywhere I went, and in many other places, than I knew what to do
with. The evangelist has a message to the world, which he goes
expeditiously to deliver. He is an auxiliary of apostles, prophets, pastors,
and teachers. How strange to find preachers and Churches clamorous
against the very existence of a ministerial order which the Bible positively
reveals, instituted and sent of God! The bitter opposition to evangelists
reminds me of the old Latin proverb, “Quem Deus vit perdere primum
dementat,” — whom God wisheth to destroy, he first maketh mad. When
preachers and laymen flatly contradict God Almighty, and audaciously
oppose his revealed Word, the omens are appalling.
“Pastors.” You see in this catalogue “bishop” does not occur, from the
simple fact that the New Testament bishop is always synonymous with
pastor; the latter Latin, and the former Greek. The pastor is the abiding
custodian of the Lord’s flock, whose duty it is to “lead them beside the
still waters, and have them lie down in green pastures.” Our Savior
condemns the hireling shepherd, certifying that he can not be relied on
when the robber attacks the flock, but he will skedaddle away, leaving
 27
them a prey to the enemy. The saddest phenomenon of the present day is
to see the devil’s wolves and robbers making sad havoc of the flock of
God, while the hireling shepherds are
“drinking their milk, feasting on their flesh, and clothing themselves
in their wool, reveling in their tents.” (Ezekiel 44)
“Teachers.” This office has long ago been dead and forgotten in the
popular Churches. An old ex-missionary of Bishop Taylor from India told
me that the heathen know more about the Bible than the Church members
in America, because the missionaries teach a regular Bible school every
day, which they are permitted to attend and enjoy. Sad to say, the Church
is no longer the school of Christ; as the little degospelized, despiritualized
sermonettes on Sunday morning and evening are not entitled to recognition
in Biblical didactics. The Lord has long used your humble servant as the
teacher of his people; but I have to go to the holiness movement for an
appreciative audience. The Word of God is bread, meat, water, milk,
honey, wine, grapes, pomegranates, and all the luxuries of the kingdom.
But a dead man does not want his dinner. Hence, if you would turn a
popular Church into a Christian school, you must first bring to them the
resurrection power.
12. “For the perfecting of the saints in the work of the ministry, unto the
edification of the body of Christ:
13. “Until we all arrive into the unity of faith and of the perfect knowledge
of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ.” We see clearly in these Scriptures that these different
ministerial orders are God’s provision for the perfecting of his saints. No
wonder the Church of the present day is lamentably shorn of her power
by the Delilahs of the world, and miserably enslaved in the mills of Dagon,
when all these ministerial orders given for her perfection are practically
abnegated with the single exception of the pastor, and he a poor hireling,
who, Jesus said, could not be relied on.
God has raised up the holiness people in every Church and country, to
restore New Testament truth and simplicity, leading the people out of
legal bondage into the glorious liberty of full salvation the Bible loved and
appreciated as the only guide and authority.
 28
ARGUMENT 18 — NEEPIOS AND TELEIOS
14. “In order that we may be no longer infants, tossed by the waves and
carried away by every wind of teaching in the stratagem of men, in their
craft for the purpose of delusion;
15. “But speaking the truth in Divine love, let us grow up into him in all
things who is the head, Christ.” Neepios means an infant; Teleios means
perfect. These two words, correlatively and contrastively, represent the
two great works of grace in the plan of salvation. We have in this
wonderful exegesis of Paul no allusion whatever to any other classes.
Regeneration makes you a babe in Christ, and sanctification, winding up
your minority, brings in your spiritual majority, constituting you an adult.
Of course, following the analogy of the natural kingdom, we recognize a
progressive development before the birth, and afterward culminating in
full-grown manhood. He gives a reason here why we should get out of
babyhood, because during our spiritual infancy, as in natural childhood, we
need nurses and guardians; meanwhile, we are perilously subordinated to
our environments, and liable to influence and capture by all sorts of
intrigue, human and diabolical, ultimating in ruin, temporal and eternal. The
only remedy for the spiritual feebleness, foibles, and caprices peculiar to
the spiritual infancy following regeneration, is entire sanctification, which
makes you a “perfect man.” Perfect is from facio, to make, and per,
complete. Hence, it simply means made complete. Man was complete,
man was perfect, when he emanated from the Creative fiat. Satan
destroyed his equilibrium, put him out of kilter, thus rendering him
imperfect. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8.)
Nothing is the work of the devil but sin. When Christ destroys sin in you,
he makes you complete in him, and what the Bible calls a perfect
Christian. It is not maturity, but purity, as you will grow on through this
life, and doubtless through all eternity. Carnal preachers in all ages, the
pope at their head, have violently opposed entire sanctification, from the
simple fact that it takes the people out of their hands, and puts them
where none but God can rule them. A Roman Catholic commentator,
Liguori, thus delivers on that subject: “That abominable doctrine of purity
has given the Catholic Church more trouble than anything else.” Ahab said
to Elijah, “Thou art he that troubleth Israel.” O how the holiness people
 29
are now troubling the carnal preachers and fallen Churches, because they
recognize no authority hut God, revealed in his Word, Spirit, and
providence! Spiritual babes are tossed about by every wind of teaching at
the caprice of ecclesiastical demagogues.
15. “Speaking the truth in Divine love.”...
Sanctified people are no longer tossed about by human creeds and
cunningly manipulated by priestcraft; but, free as angels, they take the
Bible for their only authority, and Jesus for their only companion, and, O
how they “grow up in him, their living Head!”
16. We see from this verse the glorious unity of God’s people, regardless
of sect, race, or color; the whole body joined and knitted together, and
united to Christ by the Holy Spirit; the life-blood Circulating into every
part, and vitalizing every fiber and tissue throughout the entire body.
When the blood no longer circulates into any part of the body, it becomes
paralyzed and dead. So with the Church of God and the Churches forsaken
by the Holy Ghost, and now ghastly spiritual corpses.
17-19. These three verses give us an appalling description of the
debauched heathen world, sunk deep, not only into brutality, but into
diabolism.
20. “But you have not so learned Christ, if, indeed, you have heard him
and been taught in him, as is true in Jesus;
22. “That you are to lay aside as to your former life the old man, who is
corrupt as to the lusts of delusion.” You see from these verses
the positive and unequivocal fact that every regenerated person is taught
by the Holy Ghost the reality and their need of entire sanctification, so
that all of the true children of God actually hunger and thirst after it. This
Scripture positively unchristianizes all anti-holiness people. If a man is a
Christian, his soul longs to be perfectly whole.
23. “And to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and
24. “To put on the new man, who is created in harmony with God, in
righteousness and holiness of the truth.” Here we have an exegesis of our
creation in the image and likeness of God.
 30
What is that image and likeness? Here Paul answers the question. “The
image of God is righteousness in harmony with God’s revealed truth.”
Hence, it is not human righteousness arising from our good works, as a
corrupt clergy would vainly tell you, but the righteousness of God in
Christ imputed unto the truly penitent sinner, who, in utter desperation
and profound realization of his utter meekness for hellfire, casts himself on
the mercy of God in Christ. Then God freely forgives him for Christ’s
sake alone, imputing to him his own righteousness, procured by the
perfect obedience of Christ, both active (ever keeping the law), and passive
(paying its penalty for us). This is the image of God; i.e., harmonization
with the Divine character. Our conformity to the Divine law does not
suffice; we must be in harmony with the character of God; i.e., like God, if
we spend eternity with him in heaven. It takes entire sanctification, not
imputing, as in case of righteousness, but imparting the Divine nature to
our hearts, thus investing us with the likeness of God. The true reading is,
“righteousness and holiness of truth;” i.e., as expounded by the truth in
contradistinction to all sorts of clerical and diabolical counterfeits, by
which millions are deluded and cast into hell. The Bible is the only
expositor of the “righteousness and holiness” pertinent to the restoration
of the Divine image and likeness which we lost in the fall. The inspired
Book is full of warnings against the counterfeits of men and devils,
flooding us with the testimony of the Holy Ghost, assuring us that we
must have the righteousness wrought in the expiation of Christ and the
holiness of the cleansing blood applied by the Holy Spirit through faith
alone.

ARGUMENT 21— PRACTICAL HOLINESS

26. “Be ye angry, and sin not; let not the sun go down on your
provocation.” The Greek word translated angry, is the same we have in
Luke, who says our Savior “looked on them with anger, being grieved on
account of the hardness of their hearts,” revealing our Savior’s holy grief as
the definition of orgidzoo, anger.
Hence, we see that if you get angry, and sin not — i.e., have no sin in it —
there will be nothing indulged but holy grief in contemplation of wrong;
i.e., you will simply be angry in the sense in which God is angry. God sees
all the evil in the world, and is infinitely grieved over it. The more holy we
 31
become, the more acutely we discern, disapprove, and grieve over all evil;
i.e., we are angry, but sin not; i.e., there is no sin in our anger. The sun is
going down every moment on some meridian of the earth.
Hence, the going down of the sun signifies the daily current events of life,
involving the idea that we are to receive no provocation at any time, lest
the sun go down onit. Wicked men and devils are constantly offering us
provocation. But entire sanctification is the investiture of true wisdom,
incessantly fortifying us against the reception of evil, though ever so
alluringly and importunately enforced on us by human and demoniacal
agencies. An insult is a filthy, loathing stench in the nostrils of purity.
Shall I be gumpish enough to receive it? God forbid!
28. The man who cheats or defrauds in any way, or endeavors to acquire
ill-gotten gains, is a thief in the sight of God. If you cheat a man out of a
dollar, God condemns you for stealing the dollar. The little rogues steal in
the night,, and expiate their crimes in the penitentiary.
The big rogues steal while looking you in the face. Then you honor them
with a place on the judicial bench, where they condemn the little thieves. If
a man can steal enough to become very rich, you will promote him to high
offices of honor in Church and State. We see from this Scripture that a man
is not justifiable for idleness because he is rich. It is his duty to labor with
his own hands, that he may have to give to the needy.
29. Your mouth belongs to God. Hence, you can not let the devil use it for
obscene, vain, trifling, or foolish utterances with impunity.
30. “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you have been sealed unto
the day of redemption.” In regeneration, the Holy Spirit writes you up, and
sends you into the world God’s letter, to be read by all men. (2
Corinthians 3) In sanctification, the letter is sealed by the Holy Ghost,
securing the contents against robbery. If this is not done, Satan will steal
away your letter, leaving you the old, empty envelope to meet the “Judge
of all the earth.” “Redemption” is the glorious transfiguration of your
body,. when “this mortal shall put on immortality, and death shall be
swallowed up of life.” The day of “redemption” is the great day of all days
when our glorious Lord shall return and call his saints to meet him in the
air. The sealing of the Holy Ghost — i.e. entire sanctification — is the
 32
qualification for the momentous ordeal of meeting our descending Lord.
Has the Holy Ghost written you into a letter of God to the world, and
sealed you against all the intrigues of the devil?
31. Here we have a black catalogue of ugly things, which forever depart
with the exit of sin and the ingress of the Holy Ghost. Lord, help us all to
verify this commandment!
32. The saints of God are exceptions in the world for their goodness,
kindness, and philanthropy, delighted with opportunities freely to forgive,
and joyfully to confer benefactions. While Christ sitteth on the mediatorial
throne, hidden beyond the glittering stars, his loving bride, exhibiting his
image and likeness, still walks the earth, reflecting the loving kindness,
tender mercies, and heavenly benefactions of her Divine Spouse.
 33

CHAPTER 5

1,2. Like our ascended Lord, we are to be a perpetual sacrifice on God’s

altar, emitting the sweet savor of holiness to the Lord.
3. Here we see covetousness, the crying sin of the popular Churches of
this day, and so magnetic as to escape exposition and condemnation from
the pulpit, here catalogued with fornication and impurity, and interdicted
so much as a mention among the saints.
4. “And scandal or foolish talking or indecent jesting, which are
unbecoming, but rather the giving of thanks.” For many years a secular
paper has not been permitted to enter my house, from the simple fact that
they carry Satan’s carrion. You can not mention “scandal” with impunity.
If you tamper with it, you will get polluted. You can not indulge in
“foolish talk,” or even listen to it, without grieving the Holy Spirit; while
“indecent jesting” is simply abominable in the sight of God and all good
people. During the Confederate War, while General Grant was in his
headquarters, surrounded by his military magnates, a Federal officer rushes
in a great glee, looking around, says: “I believe there are no ladies present. I
have something wonderfully good to tell.” At that moment the old General
bluntly interjected, “But I will let you know there are gentlemen present.”
The man took the hint, and never told the joke.
At that time General Grant did not profess Christianity, but his manly
decorum revolted at the thought of hearing anything too obscene for
repetition in the presence of ladies. It is scandalous, diabolical, and barbaric
for men to indulge in conversation incompatible with the presence of
women. This verse ought to be written up in a motto, and rendered
conspicuous in every home, church, and business circle. Scandal, foolish
talking, and indecent jesting among the laity, and even the ministry, cause
wholesale backsliding, as it is impossible to indulge in these vices and
frivolities without grieving the Holy Spirit. Inadvertent participation in
these vanities will grieve away the Holy Spirit, and superinduce
backsliding before you are aware. Thousands fall in this way, and wake up
to find the Heavenly Dove mournfully absent, and wonder why he ever
retreated away. Thomas a Kempis, the Roman Catholic confessor of entire
 34
sanctification, has written clearly and beautifully on this subject,
especially warning the preachers.
5. Here again the Holy Ghost not only catalogues the covetous man right
along with the fornicator and the debaucher, but he denominates him an
idolater, certifying that he “has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and
of God.” This argument will bear the most logical scrutiny, as the covetous
man piling up his hoarded self does not need it for sustenance, it follows,
as a legitimate sequence, that he worships the sordid gold, and is therefore
as base an idolater as ever bowed at the shrine of Jupiter.
6. Let no one deceive you “with empty discourses; for through these things
the wrath of God cometh on the sons of disobedience.” The sad verification
of this warning everywhere nowadays proclaims the awful apostasy of the
latter days. The gospel has well-nigh gone out of the popular Churches.
Paul defines the gospel as (Romans 1:16),
“the dynamite of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.”
Hence, every discourse which is not charged with God’s dynamite to blow
sin out of the heart, is “empty” and degospelized. Songs, prayers,
testimonies, and sermons without the Holy Ghost are all “empty,”
illusory, and susceptible of utilization by the devil, as greased planks on
which to slide people into hell. No wonder our Savior forbade his own
apostles to preach the gospel till after they received the Holy Ghost.
What a pity that every preacher does not lie prostrate before God till he
fills him with the Holy Ghost, before he assumes the awful responsibility
of standing between the living and the dead.
7-9. God is original light, perfectly free from darkness. Satan has not a
solitary ray to cheer the black midnight of his hapless soul.
10,11. “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but
rather convict them.” “Convict” is the verb form of elegchos, which is the
verdict of the criminal judge against the accused, condemning him to his
merited retribution. We are all custodians and exponents of God’s law,
revealed in the Bible. Therefore, it is our province, like the criminal judge,
to know no favorites, giving the gospel trumpet no uncertain sound, lifting
high the glittering sword, cutting right and left without distinction or
 35
mercy, never softening what God has made hard, nor smoothing what God
has made rough; but ringing out the truth fearlessly of men and devils,
though it condemn the priest, the prophet, the king, and the potentate.
12-14. As the sun illuminates the material world, investing every substance
with his light, which is reflected indiscriminately, thus rendering visible the
material world; so the great Sun of righteousness transmits his light to all
of his saints, which by them is reflected throughout the spiritual world.
Hence, we are all walking luminaries in the providence of God, sent forth
to irradiate the globe. “Therefore, he says, awake thou that sleepest and
arise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon thee.” Regeneration is the
glorious resurrection of the human soul from the dead, rising out of Satan’s
dreary kingdom, where black darkness and death eternally reign; the soul
sweeps into the kingdom of God, opening his eyes to contemplate the
glorious light pouring on him from the effulgent Christ, revealing to him the
splendors, mysteries, and beauties of the spiritual world, which he never
saw before.
15. This verse, in harmony with the Bible, denominates the people walking
straight into hell “foolish,” and those who travel the heavenly highway as
“wise.”
16. “Buying in the opportunity, because the days are evil.” When bright den
went into eclipse, Satan’s reign of darkness, sin, and death sadly
supervened. It has swept along like a desolating avalanche, nearly six
thousand years, during which the “saved are few;” only here and there a
traveler on the King’s highway, while the pell-mell multitudes rush at
racehorse speed into hell. Therefore, it stands us in hand wisely to snatch
every fleeting moment, thus “buying in the opportunity” to rescue the
perishing.

ARGUMENT 22 — “FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT”

17. “Therefore be ye not foolish, but understand what is the will of the
Lord.”
18. “Be not drunk with wine, in which there is riot, but be ye filled with the
Spirit.” This verse is beautifully and lucidly expository of the preceding,
warning us not to be “foolish,” but to understand the will of the Lord.
 36
Now, what is the will of the Lord? The eighteenth verse answers, “Be ye
filled with the Spirit.” Hence, we see that the will of the Lord is that we all
“be filled with the Spirit,” and in case ofdelinquency we are denominated
“foolish.” O how few people in this ‘world are “filled with the Spirit” The
virgins in the parable were called “foolish,” because they were not “filled
with the Spirit.” We can well afford to let the people call us “foolish,” for
that is no evidence that it is true. But we can not afford to have the Holy
Ghost pronounce us “foolish,” for in that case we are fools to an absolute
Certainty. Then let us all get “filled with the Spirit,” and keep full, as only
in this way we can escape the imputation of folly by the Infallible One.
Bear in mind, you must be completely emptied of sin before you can be
“filled with the Holy Ghost.” Then expeditiously get under the blood, and
trust for a radical emptying of your spirit from all evil. Then trust your
Savior to fill you with the Holy Ghost, and there abide forever.
19,20. These verses establish the fact that the Holy Ghost not only fills
the heart, but he opens the mouth and makes us sing, testify, and speak
fluently and indefatigably for God. It is simply awful to spend an hour in a
fashionable city church listening to Satan’s giggling choir squeal out a few
operatic songs, utterly unintelligible to the congregation sitting dumb as
tombstones. These graveyard Churches are the devil’s counterfeits. God’s
Churches are like a graveyard on the resurrection morn, when the awful
excitement of the archangel’s trump is bursting every tomb. Bishop
FitzGerald well says, that “when the singing is confined to the choir, it is
very inappropriate to sing anything except ‘Hark, from the tombs a doleful
sound!’ as it is a funeral occasion; the Church is dead.” Rest assured the
Holy Ghost always makes people sing. So when a congregation quits
singing, they have already become a good missionary field.

ARGUMENT 23 — SPIRITUAL WEDLOCK

21-24. Here the apostle gives the beautiful and instructive similitude of the
matrimonial alliance, unifying husband and wife, and thus vividly
illustrating the mysterious unity of our Lord and his bride.
25. “Husbands love your wives with Divine love, as Christ also loved the
Church with Divine love, and gave himself for her.” According to this
Scripture, it is the duty of every man to get his soul saved before he takes
 37
a wife; as he is utterly incompetent to love her with Divine love till he
receives it, poured out into his heart by the Holy Ghost in regeneration.
You must not confound the popular Church with the Church of God here
described, consisting only of the souls having been called out from this
wicked world by the Holy Ghost, and separated unto God. Mark it down,
the Church of God does not contain a solitary sinner. Hence, these
Churches professing and practicing a sinning religion are all Satan’s bogus.
26. “That he may sanctify her, and purify her by the washing of water
through the Word.” No honest Bible reader will fail to see the second work
of grace here revealed beyond the possibility of doubt. The regeneration of
the Holy Ghost takes sinners out of Satan’s kingdom, transforms them
into saints, and constitutes the Divine Ecclesia here mentioned. The Lord
does not sanctify this wicked world, but Ecciesia, i.e., his own Church.
Hence, no one can be so stupid as not to see that sanctification here
revealed is a work distinct from regeneration, and subsequent to it. What is
sanctification? The Holy Ghost here defines it a purification, illustrated by
the “washing of water;” not literal water, as we here learn it is “through the
Word.” The Bible teaches that we are sanctified by the Spirit, blood, faith,
and Word. These are all in perfect harmony, either with other. The Holy
Spirit is the omnipotent Agent who sanctifies us; the blood, the Divine
elixir by which he effects the purgation; the Word, God’s appointed
medium through which we are sanctified; and faith, the condition on which
we receive it.
Hence, the Spirit, blood, Word, and faith are but counterparts of the same
great transaction. The instantaneity of our sanctification is here confirmed
by two infallible witnesses in this short verse; i.e., hagiasee, sanctify, and
katharisas, purifying, are both in the aorist tense, which God put in the
Greek language to reveal to all honest readers that he actually sanctifies in
the twinkling of an eye. You may long approach the experience, but
suddenly enter it, the gradualism always being on the human side, as
Omnipotence needs but a moment to do his work. I write these pages in
California, three thousand miles from home. I spent weeks on my western-
bound tour, approaching the land of gold. But the time came when, in a
moment, the iron horse leaped over the State line, and I found myself in
the land of perennial fruits and fadeless flowers.
 38
27. “That he may present to himself a glorious Church, having neither spot
nor wrinkle nor any of such things, but she may be holy and blameless.”
“‘Tis a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle,washed in the blood of
the Lamb!” What a contrast this plain, simple, and unmistakable statement
of the Holy Ghost affirming so positively and lucidly the purity of God’s
Church, with the materialistic, skeptical, worldly, proud, pompous,
money-loving ecclesiasticisms of the present day, not only utterly ignorant
of the sweet and simple experience of heart-purity and the indwelling
Comforter, but even waging an exterminating war in pulpit and pews
against the very religion revealed throughout the New Testament as the
blessed and happy experience of God’s children!
28. Here we have the love of Christ for his Church, which constrained him
to shed his blood to sanctify her, held up as the example for every husband
to emulate in his love for his wife, thus confirming the sanctity of
Christian wedlock beyond the possibility of cavil.
29. This verse not only recognizes the mysterious problem of conjugal
unity; but either is to esteem the other the better half, confirming their
mutual fidelity by martyrdom, if necessary.
30. Because we are members of His body, as I freely use all of my
members conservatively of my body, so Christ has a perfect right to use
every saint in perfect harmony with his sovereign will and infinite wisdom
conservatively of his glory.
31-33. No one can read these verses, and call in question the Bible doctrine
of conjugal unity. It is not only repeatedly affirmed, but even enforced by
the example of Christ and his bride. As we receive his nature, and become
one with him in spirit, mind, life, purpose, and enterprise for time and
eternity, so husband and wife are “no longer twain, but one flesh.” In
harmony with this truth, we must receive the doctrine of literal and actual
conjugal unity in the Divine institution of Christian matrimony. Hence, we
should watch and pray, lest we infringe upon the rights and privileges of
this God-given blessing to the world. It was instituted in Eden, and
survived the fall, to bless mankind to the end of time. The social purity
problem is not to be construed interconjugally so as to antagonize conjugal
unity. Husband and wife are to walk in the clear light of God’s Word,
 39
Spirit, and providence, lest they deflect into fanaticism, and mar the
beauty, chill the bliss, and darken the brightness of the Christian home.
 40

CHAPTER 6

ARGUMENT 24 — DOMESTIC GOVERNMENT

1. “Children obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.” Out of the
Lord, dare to disobey and suffer the consequences. If your parents assign
you to a dancing-school, refuse to go; if you get a thrashing every day,
receive it joyfully for Christ’s sake. It is equally true in the relation of
husband and wife, master and slave. You are only to obey in the Lord.
When the brutal husband of a holy woman forbade her going to John
Wesley’s meetings on pain of death, still she went, though he had sworn in
his wrath that be would bake her in his oven. Returning from a glorious
class-meeting, she saw the smoke going up from the bake-oven. Falling on
her knees, she said; “Lord, if you need a martyr in England, I put in the
first bid. I am ready to go into that oven like Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. If you do not need the martyr, put your hand on my wicked
husband.” When she got inside of the house, she saw him rolling over the
floor, unable to stand on his feet, exclaiming aloud, “Pray for me, O my
Polly; I will be in hell before night.” Soon he was converted and sanctified,
and became an earnest class leader. When you dare to obey God, he will
take care of the results.
2,3. Sin dishonors your father and mother, casting over their memories a
reflection of reproach for neglect of duty. A correct life observes the laws
of nature, lives hygienically, and always conduces to longevity. “The
wicked shall not live out half their days.”
4. “And, fathers, provoke not your children to wrath.” You know the poor
little things have inherited evil tempers from you. If you can not kill a
rattlesnake, just let him alone. If you arouse him, he will probably kill
somebody. The hereditary evil in your children is the snake nature,
imbibed from the devil in the fall through the serpent. You can not kill it.
Adam the Second alone can kill Adam the First. Hence, do your utmost to
avoid arousing the evil tempers in your children, till you can get them all
sanctified out by the cleansing blood. “But bring them up in the discipline
and instruction of the Lord;” i.e., so correctly in the fear and love of God
as to keep them out of sin, and enforce obedience. Solomon says, “If you
 41
beat a boy with a rod, you shall save his soul,” and warns us not to “spare
the rod and spoil the child.” Meanwhile, you sedulously control him in
harmony with the law of God. Your home is to be the school of Christ, in
which you faithfully teach the inmates the Holy Scriptures and the way of
the Lord.
5-9. This paragraph beautifully expounds the relation between the master
and slave; as servant here is doulos, which always means a slave, as
oiketees is the word for hired servants. Slavery was common in all nations
in Paul’s day. The gospel is not a political, but a spiritual power. Hence,
while it provides sanctifying grace competent to superinduce perfect
harmony, love, peace, brotherhood, and charity between the master and
servant, so as to make their home a little heaven, yet it lays deep in the
heart of both those sanctified principles which will, in due time, utterly
and eternally undermine and abolish the institution of human slavery. My
great-grandfather, when converted under the preaching of Bishop Asbury
in old Virginia, owned thirty Negro slaves. On arrival at his home, he called
them all into his house, told them his experience, fell on his knees, and
prayed for them, got up, and bade them a loving adieu, exhorting them to
meet him in heaven, saying, “Go now whither you will, you are as free as I
am.” Though we always lived in a slave State, that was the finale of
slavery in our family.

ARGUMENT 25 — THE CHRISTIAN’S PANOPLY

10. “Finally, be filled up with dynamite.” Heaven is full of dynamite. We
have but to tap the ocean by faith and we get full. When a teacher in
college, I use to charge a galvanic battery with electricity, have a student
stand on an insulating stool, put his hand on the pole, and get so full of
electricity, that every hair on his head would stand out straight. If a person
would come near him, a spark of fire would leap out of him, and burn him.
So we all ought to be full of God’s dynamite, transmitting the sin-
consuming fire to all who come about us. This is the way we are to
conquer the world for Christ.
11. “Put on the panoply of God, that you may stand against the methods of
the devil.” When John and Charles Wesley, Thomas Maxfield, and John
Fletcher organized the Holy Club at Oxford, in 1724, the Churches were so
 42
dead and the clergy so unspiritual, that they had 110 methods for the
conversion of sinners and the sanctification of believers. So, when John
Wesley organized the class-meeting for the conversion of penitents, the
holiness bands for the sanctification of Christians, and the select societies
for the edification of the sanctified, and they saw them working hard day
and night to get sinners converted and Christians sanctified, the proud
clergymen and carnal members raised a critical howl, “See how these
fellows have methods of doing God’s work,” considering it a matter of
ridicule that any one would presume to adopt methods for the salvation of
souls, as that was God’s work, and he would attend to it in his own time
and way. Hence, they called John Wesley and his comrades “Methodists,”
simply because they had methods of saving souls. Here we see Paul
alludes to the “methods of the devil;” therefore, the devil is a great
“Methodist,” having an infinite diversity of methods for the damnation of
souls. Hence, if we would compete with him, we must have methods, too.
The fallen Churches are full of methods for money-raising and everything
else except salvation, of which they are utterly destitute. Hence, Satan,
with a gusto, dumps them into hell by wholesale, as he has an abundance
of most successful methods for damnation, and they none for salvation.
12. “There is not to us fighting against blood and flesh, but against
governments, against authorities, against the world-rulers of this
darkness, against spirits of wickedness in the heavenlies.” Satan utilizes
his paradoxical intelligence as an organizer of his diabolical forces in earth
and hell for the damnation of each revolving generation. His war is not
haphazardous, but wisely planned and cunningly executed. His strategic
movements against humanity are marvelous, and infinitely beyond human
conception. Could you see the tall peers of the pit, commanding the vast
demoniacal battalions, and manipulating their adroit military evolutions
through our populous cities, even drawing the chloroformed Churches into
their cooperation to fight holiness and join the world, you would fall in line
with the holiness movement, and stir us all up into a Balaklava charge
against the combined armies of earth and hell. “High places” here is the
same Greek as heavenly places in every preceding chapter. “Places” in the
original should not occur; the proper reading, simply “the heavenlies” i.e.,
heavenly experiences — which we must have preparatory to our
enjoyment of heaven.
 43
Hence, we see that the big fight with the devil, in which he marshals all the
hierarchies of hell, is pitched against the people “in the heavenlies.” Satan
doesn’t waste his ammunition on sinners, as they are already secure in his
black clutches. Neither does he expend much on unsanctified Christians, as
the depravity in them is hell’s lasso around their necks, sure to drive out
their religion, and drag them into the pit, if they don’t get it burnt off with
sanctifying fire. But when you get truly sanctified, saved to the uttermost
in the enjoyment of the heavenly state, and robed and ready for the bright
upper world, Satan knows he is fighting in his last ditch; he must get you
now, or give you up forever. Hence, he lays under contribution all the
armies of earth and hell for your apostasy and damnation.
13. “Therefore take the panoply of God, that you may be able to stand in
the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.” We awfully jeopardize our
immortal interest, if we neglect a solitary item of the Christian’s panoply.
We most imperatively need it all, and terribly imperil our souls if we take
chances on the devil’s battlefield with inadequate armor. Man’s extremity
is God’s opportunity. When we have “done all,” and reached utter despair,
God takes the work into hand; the sinner gets converted at the end of all
human resources. In a similar manner must the Christian who would
receive the sanctifying baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire leave John at
the Jordan, and see Jesus only. It is equally true in all our Christian
warfare, the victory comes when we have “done all.” On a ship in mid-
ocean the alarm roars, “A man overboard!” “Who will save him?” A
stalwart youth volunteers. All eyes are fixed on him, and all wonder that
he does not leap in, for he stands like a statue gazing on the deep. The man
appears amid the billows, struggling terrifically; all shout, “Now, now is
your chance!” The volunteer heeds them not, but stands still. Two minutes
have flown; the drowning man again rises to the surface, struggling for life,
but not half so violently as before. Again all shout to the volunteer to leap
to his rescue, who, to their surprise, looks on the scene with apparent
indifference. Five minutes have flown, the drowning man again comes in
sight. The struggle is over, for he is dead. Now the athlete leaps overboard,
and soon brings him up by the hair of the head. Erelong he is recuperated
and running like a racehorse all over the deck, so glad he is alive. They now
ask the swimmer, “Why did you not save him the first time?” “Too
strong; he would have drowned me as well as himself.” “Why did you not
 44
save him the second time?” “Still too strong; he would have drowned us
both. I waited till his strength was gone.” So Jacob wrestled all night till his
hip was out of joint, and his strength gone.
14. “Therefore stand girded about your loins with truth, and having on the
breastplate of righteousness.” “Loins” symbolize strength, and the girdle
the powerful auxiliary. Hence, we see that God’s revealed truth Is our
power. A sermon may be eloquent and intellectually edifying, but it is
potent for good only as it is freighted with the Word of God. This is the
melancholy secret of the lamentable loss of power in the Churches. The
Word of God is substituted by human learning, which is utterly powerless
to save souls. Hence, the cultured, eloquent preacher just lets the people
drop through his fingers into hell. In the breast are located the important
vital organs of the physical organism; i.e., the heart, lungs, liver, stomach.
If they are not protected you will soon die. Your own righteousness,
arising from your good works, is “filthy rags” in the sight of God. It is the
fond trick of the devil to so fool you as to get you to insult God by poking
off on him your own righteousness, a pile of stenchy rags. This
“breastplate of righteousness,” so indispensable to your fortification
against Satan’s missiles of death, is none other than the righteousness of
God in Christ, imputed unto you when in radical abandonment of all sin
and eternal submission to the Divine Will in the profound realization of
your fitness only for hell, by faith alone, you cast yourself on the mercy
of God in Christ.
15. “Having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” It
is distressing to see the sore footed pilgrims limping around; and no
wonder, for they are barefoot, and the road is both flinty and thorny. What
a pity they do not all supply themselves with a pair of good, substantial
gospel shoes! Then they would delight to run, like Sampson’s foxes,
throughout the whole community, everywhere bankrupting the devil by
burning down Philistines’ cornfields, and taking the land for King Jesus.
16. “In all things taking the shield of faith, by which you shall be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” The Stygian soldiers of
Satan’s army are constantly shooting at the saints of God red-hot arrows,
flaming with hellfire. “The shield of faith” is more than a match for all of
the devil’s artillery, quenching or putting out all of the fire, so they are
 45
perfectly harmless falling at your feet. Thus you receive no damage.
Meanwhile hell is robbed of her ammunition. This is not the faith by
which a penitent sinner is justified. Neither is it the faith by which a
consecrated Christian is sanctified. But it is the Christian ‘warrior’s faith.
Hence, when you go out to fight the devil, be sure you wear your shield;
i.e., have faith in Jesus to give you constant victory, and it will be
according to your faith every time. When the soldier-boy left home for the
field, the Grecian mother always delivered to him his shield, with the
words, “My son, with this; or upon it.” When the soldier fled before the
enemy, he always threw away his shield for expedition. When he was slain
in battle, they carried home his dead body on his shield. Hence, the charge
of the Grecian mother to her soldier boy to conquer or die on the
battlefield.
17. “And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which
is the Word of God.” The helmet protects the head, the location of the
brain, the most important and vital organ. This “helmet of salvation” is the
genuine salvation of the Lord, which is the infallible protection against all
the assaults of Satan. When I was in the Tower of London, I saw the
medieval knights mounted on their gallant war steeds, invested with a
panoply of shining steel from the crown of the head to the soles of their
feet, their war-horses also covered with the same impregnable armor. Amid
all this stupendous panoply, so vividly described by Paul, every weapon
is defensive, except the sword, which is the Word of God. Hence, you
seethe Christian warrior goes forth to meet the foe so thoroughly fortified
by his protective armor, as to be utterly invincible, simultaneously lifting
high his glittering two-edged sword, by which he cuts down the enemy
right and left, without distinction or mercy. During the conquest of Mexico
by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, amid an awful battle on the
Heights of Chepultepec, two young Aztecs flew at General Cortez, like
lions in desperation, to precipitate him from the heights, thus killing him
and themselves to save their country; but the heroic Spaniard very adroitly
met and slew them both with his sword. O how few Christians are experts
in gladiatorial combat! This wonderful sword has two edges. If you receive
the salvation edge, it will cut all sin out of you, sanctify you wholly, and
save you forever. If you are too cowardly and mean to hug the salvation
 46
edge, you are destined to receive the damnation edge, which will cut out all
your hopes of heaven, consigning you to an eternity of woe.
18. You can not always be in the meditation of prayer, but you can
incessantly abide in the spirit of prayer, which is your needed fortification
against demoniacal surprises, to which you are constantly liable, and in
danger of disconcertment. When Bunyan’s Pilgrim met Apollyon in the
Valley of Humiliation, and fought him six solid hours in a terrible hand to
hand combat, the latter roaring like a lion and fighting with desperation, in
the midst of the deadly conflict at one time Pilgrim lost his sword.
Meanwhile it seemed that his doom was sealed. Bunyan says that he had
another weapon called All-prayer, which he used with his utmost ability
during this awful crisis. Suddenly, to his joyful surprise, his hand lights on
the hilt of his sword, which he wields with unprecedented energy,
stampeding his hellish foe from the field, and raising the mighty shout of
victory.
19,20. Here Paul reminds the Ephesian saints fifteen hundred miles away,
to incessantly pray for him, not that he may be released from bonds and
imprisonment, but tat he may have the power and liberty of to Holy
Ghost, “boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.” Nearly all the
preachers lack boldness and clearness. Indifferentism withers and chills all
gospel effort. The remedy for all this is prayer. The preacher ought to have
a score of red-hot public prayers before he opens his mouth to preach the
living Word, as it is a mystery which none but the Holy Ghost can reveal.
21,22. Tychichus and Onesimus traveled together from Rome to Asia,
carrying this epistle and that of Colossians and Philemon, all of which Paul
wrote, occupying his rented mission-hall the first two years of his Roman
imprisonment.

ARGUMENT 26 — REGENERATION AND SANCTIFICATION

24. “Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with Divine love in
purity.” Here we have agape, the definition of God himself. (I John 4:18.)
“God is love;” i.e., love is the Divine nature. It evanesced from humanity
in the fall, and never gets back till the Holy Ghost pours it from his own
heart into ours in regeneration. So this Divine love is the new heavenly
nature imparted to us in regeneration. We receive it into a depraved heart,
 47
as we have no other sort. This heart must be thoroughly purified in the
subsequent work of entire sanctification. Why does not God take the old
life of sin out of us before he imparts the new life of grace? Why did not
the Indians evacuate California before the Americans came and settled this
beautiful country? From the simple fact that they loved California, and
wanted to stay in it, and did stay until they were driven out by the new
inhabitants. Even so the devil loves the human heart, and only evacuates it
at the point of the bayonet. If the Holy Ghost did not come in, Satan
would never go out. When he comes in, he always brings his new life with
him. Hence, we see regeneration must precede sanctification. This verse is
a good text, beautifully revealing this great double salvation in a nutshell.
 48

APOLOGUE.

Thus we have traversed the wonderful Epistle to the Ephesian Church,

exhibiting the highest type of spirituality in the Bible. As Ephesus was the
metropolis of Western Asia, the city most magnetic and influential,
whether for good or evil, Paul laid the glorious foundation by getting all the
original twelve members sanctified, and then pushed the battle three years
in a red-hot and unbroken campaign, so that “all Asia heard the gospel.”
The Ephesian Church was afterward honored ‘with the residence of cur
Lord’s mother, and the pastorate of the Apostle John, who survived all his
apostolical comrades a whole generation, and was doubtless translated to
heaven from the Ephesian Church. He is the only apostle who was not
honored with a martyr’s crown. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and other
Christian fathers, who lived under the shadow of the apostles, testify that
John was translated to heaven alive. John Wesley believed it. Why does
the Bible say nothing about it? Good reason: John was the last writer. Of
course, he could not record his own translation.
 49

PHILIPPIANS
PROLOGUE

Philippi was the first city in Europe complimented by the gospel. Paul,
accompanied by Luke, his amanuensis, Silas and Timothy, his fire-
baptized preachers, responsive to his heavenly vision, sailed over the
Aegean Sea from Asia to Europe, and began his evangelistic work at
Philippi, the capital of Macedonia, availing himself of the Jewish city
mission, in which Lydia and other daughters of Abraham were preaching
the Old Testament gospel to the people of that heathen city. How grossly
inconsistent for Europeans and Americans to criticize woman’s ministry,
when our gospel traveled that road! Paul is gospel father.
A woman’s meeting opened to him the first door to preach the gospel to
our progenitors.
Paul reached Rome a prisoner, in February, A. D. 61, and spent two years
preaching the gospel in his hired house. At the expiration of that period,
Burrus, the commander in chief of the Praetorian army, which guarded the
emperor’s palace and person, and the staunch friend of Paul, died, leaving
not a solitary influential person at the imperial court to defend him.
Consequently, Paul was taken out of his hired house and carried to the
barracks, where, surrounded by thousands of soldiers and closely guarded
night and day, he dictated this beautiful, sweet, and triumphant letter to
his faithful scribe.
 50

CHAPTER 1

“Paul and Timothy, the slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the saints who are at
Philippi, along with the bishops and deacons.” As Luke is the writer, he
here modestly, as usual, omits his own name. In this salutatory verse, Paul
declares himself, along with all saints, “the slave of Jesus Christ;” a
beautiful allusion to the slavery under the law of Moses, from which all
went free responsive to the jubilee trumpets; the law specifying that all
who were unwilling to leave their masters might remain forever, having had
their ears bored and nailed to the doorposts. All sinners are Satan’s slaves;
all wholly-sanctified people are God’s love slaves; while the unsanctified
Christians are hired servants in the kingdom of God; e.g., preachers and
others working for salaries. Sanctification blows the jubilee trumpet, the
tocsin of freedom to all in a justified state; i.e., they can no longer remain in
that loose relation, but must heed the incoming dispensation of holiness to
the Lord, or go back into the devil’s kingdom, where he will allow them all
the freedom of a sinful life.
Thank God, we still find not a few who are unwilling to leave their Master,
even if through the ordeal of having their ears bored amid flowing blood,
they must be nailed to the door-post forever; i.e., they must march up to
the cross, and be nailed to it, where old Adam bleeds and dies, and they
become God’s love slaves, world without end. O, the unutterable bliss of
God’s love slave!—perfectly free from every care as to food, clothing,
lodging, life, death, time, and eternity. He has a check on heaven’s bank for
everything he needs in this and all other worlds, fully assured that it is the
delight of his Heavenly Father, with the boundless resources of millions of
immortal worlds, to render him prosperous and happy. We see here Paul
recognizes but two offices in the leadership of the Philippian Church; i.e.,
“bishops and deacons.” The human ecclesiasticisms have so obscured the
popular mind that we actually need the clear illumination of the Holy
Ghost to apprehend the simplicity of the New Testament Church.
“Bishop” is episcopos,—from epi, over, and scopeo, to see. Hence, it
simply means an overseer; i.e., the pastor of the Church, the leader of
those little holiness bands constituting the Apostolic Churches. Now, do
not forget that the only bishop known in the New Testament is simply the
 51
pastor of a Church. What a pity any Church has ever transcended New
Testament precept and example, in the inauguration of the post-apostolical
episcopacy, utterly unwarranted in the Scripture, and productive of a
thousand corruptions culminating in the papacy! The deacon is the officer
in charge of the temporal interests of the Church. He may be a flaming
preacher, like Stephen and Philip, but he has charge of the material interest,
and the pastor or bishop the spiritual.

ARGUMENT 1 — CHRISTIAN PERFECTION AND

THE LORD’S THE TWO HEMISPHERES CONSTITUTING
THE GLOBE — APOSTOLIC INSPIRATION
4-6. “Having confidence in this very thing, that he who began a good work
in you, will thoroughly perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus.” As none but
the perfect will be ready for the rapture of the Bridehood when the Lord
comes, if we are in possession of Christian perfection at that time it will
suffice for our admission into the marriage supper of the Lamb. Though we
have our entire probation in which to get ready, the slightest
postponement is very risky, as we know neither the day nor the hour
when our Lord shall descend. Perfect is from facere, to make, and per,
complete. Hence, it means made complete. God made us upright; i.e.,
perfect. Satan poisoned us with sin, thus destroying our perfection, and
rendering us imperfect. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. (1
John 3:8.) The work of the devil is sin. It is conquered in regeneration, and
destroyed in sanctification. The word here, epitelesei, is very strong; from
teleoo, to complete; and epi, completely. Hence, it means to thoroughly
make perfect. The Lord is liable any moment to ride down on a cloud. Are
you enjoying the experience of perfect love? The Omnipotent Spirit is this
moment ready to make you perfect, and prepare you for the day of the
Lord. Submit to him fully, and trust him to do it this moment.
7. Paul recognizes the privilege of all the saints by their perfect
consecration and recognition of the Divine will to actually participate the
blessings of his persecutionary sufferings.
8. “How I long after you in all the affections of Christ Jesus.” Grace is free
for all. As Paul enjoyed the affections of Christ (or, as the word means, the
 52
heart of Christ), so can we. His heart was perfectly free from sin, He came
to make our hearts like his.
9. “I pray for this, that your Divine love may abound more and more in
perfect knowledge and every sense.” The soul has the five senses—sight,
hearing, smell, taste, and touch—like the body. A dead man has eyes, ears,
nose, tongue, and nerves; yet he neither sees, hears, smells, tastes, nor
feels. So the sinner is utterly destitute of spiritual sense, walking blind,
deaf, and senseless into hell, till he is quickened into life by the Holy
Spirit.
10. “So as to distinguish things which differ.” Animals are provided with
instinct to fortify them against destructive poisons; man has no such
protection till his spiritual senses are quickened into life by the Holy
Spirit. Hence, the sinner, tasting the devil’s filth, whisky, tobacco, and
debauchery, walks straight into hell, neither seeing the lurid flames, hearing
the groans of the damned, smelling the brimstone, nor feeling the scorching
flames. “In order that you may be pure and irreproachable in the day of
Christ.”
The word here, which I translate “pure,” simply for the want of a stronger
word, is eilikrinees, from eile, a sunbeam, and krino, to judge, from the
custom of testing purity by the sunbeam. Hence, the plain meaning: God
proposes to make your heart and mine so pure, that when illuminated by
the infallible Sun of righteousness the omniscient eye of God will discover
no impurity in it. So, spread yourself, preaching Christian purity, and rest
assured you will not get the standard above the Bible. God help us to come
up to the Bible standard, by which we will be judged! “In the day of
Christ;” i.e., when he comes for his Bride. These two grand, salient gospel
culminations were constantly moving in panorama before the illuminated
spiritual eye of Paul; i.e., perfect purity and the Lord’s return to the earth,
the latter the goal of probationary privilege, and the former the
qualification for an eternity of holy wedlock with Christ.

ARGUMENT 2 — VICTORY IN THE BARRACKS

On the death of Burrus, the Praetorian prefect, Paul’s only influential
friend at Nero’s court, the military authorities dragged him out of his city
mission into the Imperial barracks. Over this Paul shouts for joy. Instead
 53
of the little mission audience, he now preaches to twenty thousand
soldiers. Two years in the mission have rested and recuperated his voice.
O how he enjoys preaching to the vast multitude! Though every gesture of
his right hand waves the ponderous chain, he stands erect, leaps and
shouts and praises God for the change, out of the little mission into the
great army.
12-14. His comrades witnessing his triumph despite chains and soldiers,
survive their despondency, and join Paul in a general jubilee.
15-18. The great Roman Empire worshipped Jupiter, Apollo, Venus,
Minerva, Diana, and other Greek and Roman gods, who, they believed,
gave them the conquest of all nations and universal dominion. Hence, the
preaching of Jesus Christ, a crucified man, not only provoked universal
contempt, but aroused the bitterest antipathy. Many staunch votaries of
these good old Roman gods sought to culminate a crisis against Paul, by
their invidious and sacrilegious publicity of his religion, provoking the
contempt of the rabble, and arousing popular animosity, and thus
expediting the cruel fate of the bold advocate. Here we see Paul rejoicing in
everything, their dark and malignant persecutions no exception. Why did
he rejoice in their wicked, blasphemous, and invidious publication of
Christ and his doctrine? Because he knew God would bring good out of it.
God’s truth will always profit by publicity. The mere notoriety of truth
will result in good to somebody. Hence, when truth is preached by wicked
men and devils, God will bring good out of it. “The gospel is the power of
God unto salvation,” whether preached by saint, sinner, angel, or devil.
When I was presiding elder twenty-four years ago, Rev. Solomon Pope
venerable with years, told me that his preaching father was converted in
the days of Bishop Asbury, under the ministry of Seth Meade. He gave
me the notable experience of the latter, which here I relate by way of
illustration. Seth and a young comrade, both unconverted, were traveling
on horseback through the wilds of the Carolinas, to their home in old
Virginia. Their money all expended, they are in a dilemma. “Shall we stop
and hire out to work, or beg our way?” Seth, whose father was a
Methodist circuit-rider under Bishop Asbury, said, “Let us play
preachers,” to which his comrade acquiesced. Riding on, they meet a man,
and ask him if there are “any Methodists in that country with whom we
 54
can lodge tonight.” He informs them that a celebrated old class-leader lives
just about the right distance. Rejoicing in their good luck, they proceed on
their way, reaching the designated place as the sun is hastening through the
gates of Hesperus.
Halting at the gate, a robust, elderly man walks out. “Are you the man of
the house, a Methodist class leader?” “Glory to God, I am.” “Then your
house is the home of Methodist preachers.” At this the stalwart
woodsman hastens to lift them out of the saddle. Escorting them into his
capacious log cabin, he shouts aloud: “Tom, run that way, Ben that way,
and Sam over the hill, and tell everybody to come to meeting, for two
Methodist preachers are at my house.” The poor fellows, scared almost to
death, do their best to keep their equilibrium, and receive the introductions
to the family.
So soon as practicable, they retire and speak either to other: “Now we are
in it for certain. What shall we do if we leave? We must lay out, and the
Indians will get us.” Seth then proposes to stay, and abide their destiny,
observing that he believed he could preach quite a considerable from one of
his father’s old sermons, his companion consenting to do the praying.
When they return to the house, the people are pouring in from all
directions. Soon they begin to sing uproariously and pray vociferously, as
all the Methodists at that time were Jehus. Seth’s companion, who had
promised to do the praying, dodges the issue altogether, amid so many
volunteers. But he is forced, erelong, to face the music.
In his subsequent testimony, he said that starting off on one of his father’s
old sermons, he found it the hardest work he ever did. At the expiration of
ten minutes he lost his whereabouts, recognizing himself and environments
about midnight, when the house was roaring with the shouts of new-born
souls, commingled with the groans and cries of penitents stretched out on
the floor. Among those who had passed triumphantly from death to life
were he and his companion, both of whom from that notable hour became
powerful Methodist preachers, and so lived and died. Seth said that the
people told him that when he had preached about ten minutes, an awful
conviction fell on them, pervading the entire congregation, many falling on
the floor; meanwhile he spoke about two hours, literally preaching himself
into the kingdom. The gospel gun is a dangerous thing for an unskillful
 55
shooter to handle, as he is very apt to shoot himself. When the Australian
boomerang is thrown by an unskillful party, instead of going on and
slaying the intended victim, it returns, and, fastening itself on the thrower
—kills him. A town among the border ruffians was so wicked that all
Christian immigrants backslid. It becomes a consummate hell den. In their
impudent blasphemy they appoint a mock prayer-meeting, selecting as
their leader a notorious backslider, now the devil’s right-hand man. With
the impudence of devils, they proceed to mock God with their diabolical
pretensions. Going through the sanctimonious modus operandi, they kneel
in mock adoration of the great God, led by this notorious reprobate. While
engaged in the solemn farce, behold, their leader breaks down in his prayer,
falls on the floor, and cries piteously for God to have mercy on him. An
awful conviction seizes others, like a nightmare from the bottomless pit.
Many are unable to get out of the house. A preacher is sent for. A great
revival breaks out, and sweeps like a cyclone.
20. Here Paul exults in the assurance that Christ will be magnified in his
body, whether by life or death.
21. “For Christ is my life, and death is my gain.” What a triumphant
proclamation of his literal and personal identity with Christ!
22-25. Heaven is the climax of human aspiration, infinitely preferable to
health, life, prosperity, and everything else. Frequently the Lord has
wonderfully healed my body. But the time draweth nigh when I will have
no faith to be healed, but plenty of faith to sweep into glory. Then I will
get to go to heaven. Paul is flooded with impulses to sweep into glory,
simultaneously subordinated to the Divine will in the interest of the
toiling, persecuted Church, buoyant with the assurance that the glory of
God will be magnified and the Church edified through his instrumentality,
whether living or dying.

ARGUMENT 3 — SECOND IMPRISONMENT

26. “In order that your rejoicing may abound in Christ Jesus, in me
through my coming again unto you.” I believe with Dean Alford and the
abler critics, that Paul passed through two distinct imprisonments at
Rome. All the Roman authorities in Judea, Lysias, Felix, and Agrippa,
pronounced a verdict of innocence in behalf of Paul, certifying to his legal
 56
manumission so far as the criminal charges against him were concerned, as
they consisted only in accusations of disharmony with Jewish laws and
customs, which had no criminal signification in Roman jurisdiction. The
only reason for which he was carried a prisoner to Rome, was because he
had appealed to Caesar. This he did, not because he cared anything about
Caesar’s tribunal, but that he might verify his long-cherished aspiration of
preaching the gospel in the world’s capital and metropolis, that the light of
God’s truth, radiating from the center, might shine out into every land. His
rights as a Roman citizen entitled him to an appeal to Caesar, thus forcing
his enemies to defray his traveling expenses all the way from Jerusalem to
Rome, a journey at that time greater than the circumnavigation of the globe
at the present day. When finally he stood at Caesar’s tribunal, as he was
charged with nothing criminal in Roman law, they could but acquit him.
This took place about A.D. 63 or 64; after which he returned to Asia,
visiting the Churches the last time. Having crossed the Aegean Sea again,
he lands in Greece, where he wrote the first letter to Timothy and Titus,
expecting to spend the winter of A.D. 68 at Nicopolis, in Southern
Macedonia. About that time a great fire sweeps over Rome, wrapping the
city in an ocean of flame six days and seven nights. When I was there my
guide showed me the old tower on which Nero sat during the conflagration,
playing his fiddle, and singing the destruction of Troy.
Though all the people believed that the wicked emperor had ordered the
conflagration, he charged the Christians with that dark iniquity, lighting on
it as a pretext for issuing that bloody edict which caused them to bleed and
burn three hundred years. Though Paul was not at Rome during the
conflagration, when this high crime is saddled on the Christians, they have
him arrested about Nicopolis in Greece, because he was a prominent leader
of the Nazarenes. Upon his second arrest and transportation to Rome, he
was incarcerated in that loathsome old Mamertine prison, not as a mere
disturber of the Jewish religion, as in the first imprisonment, but as “an
evil doer.” (2 Timothy 2:9.) Kakourgos, from kakos, evil, and ergos,
work, is the word here applied to him in his second imprisonment. It is
because they accused him of burning Rome, which was a crime of the
darkest dye. From this prison led out, he was tried by Nero, and
condemned to decapitation. This locates his martyrdom about A.D. 68.
 57
ARGUMENT 4 — UNITY OF CHRIST AND SPIRIT
27. The Lord’s salvation, when received in its fullness and power, unifies
people in spirit and purpose.
28. “And not being intimidated in anything by the adversaries, which to
them is a manifestation of destruction, but of your salvation.” Persecution
has a deep and wonderful signification, a clear evidence of your salvation,
and an equally decisive testimony of the persecutor’s destruction.
29,30. Here Paul assures us that to believe on Christ and to suffer in his
behalf are equally fraught with blessings from God.
 58

CHAPTER 2

1,2. His exhortation here is intensified with burning irony, enforcing the
spiritual unity of the saints, either with other, and with Christ.
3,4. “—In humility esteeming one another better than ourselves.”—Lord,
help us all in the fear of God to obey this commandment! How amiable is
that perfect humility which causes me to take the lowest seat, feeling that
all others are better than myself!
5. “Let the same mind which is also in Christ Jesus.” The sinner has none
but the carnal mind. The sanctified has only the mind of Christ; while the
unsanctified Christian is double-minded James 1:8, and 4:8), having the
mind of Christ dominant, and the carnal mind subjugated; but an
exterminating war between them, till the latter is utterly consumed by the
sanctifying fire of the Holy Ghost, or the former exterminated in fatal
apostasy.
6-8. “—But made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a slave:
being in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself, being subject unto death, even the death of the cross.” When it was
my privilege to hold the first holiness meeting in a prominent Southern
city, I visited Dr. A—, pastor of the First Methodist Church, showed
myself fraternal, and invited him to attend the meetings in the court-house.
Two days have elapsed, audience is large, and interest cheering; meanwhile
I look in vain for my brother. Again I visit him at the parsonage, and
inquire into the cause of his absence. “Brother Godbey, I am glad you have
come, as I was wanting to see you. I find your congregation consists of the
poor and uninfluential people of this city. They have rallied to you from
the slums and the jungles. Many of them are actually the refuse and the
offscouring of the earth. When I ascertained the character of your crowd, I
felt that I could not attend your meeting with safety to my reputation. I
have written to a prominent preacher in the Kentucky Conference, who
assures me of your good standing in that body. I feel it my duty to inform
you that if you do not withdraw from that meeting, you will seriously
damage your reputation.” Then I respond: “Dear Brother A—, I read
Philippians 2:7, that my blessed Savior ‘made himself of no reputation,’
 59
that he might come down to this dark world of sin and sorrow, bleed and
die to save my soul from death and hell. Therefore, since, in my humble
way, I am trying to be his disciple, I am not willing, but anxious, to damage
and destroy my reputation, world without end, and even render myself
scandalous for his sake.” Brother A—, with flowing tears, responds:
“Brother Godbey, I would give all the world to be where you are.” I
respond: “That is just what it cost me, and you can have it.” We mutually
fall on our knees, and pray. Again he promises to come to my meeting. I
have never seen him since.

ARGUMENT 5 — GENUFLECTION AND CONFESSION

10. “In order that, at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, of things in
heaven, and things upon earth, and things beneath the earth;
11. “And every tongue shall confess.” While the Bible is a great spiritual
book, it has an exceedingly prominent literal signification, which we dare
not ignore. “Feeble knees” (Hebrews 12:14) is paralyzed knee, in the
language of the Holy Ghost.
How fearfully Satan’s paralysis disqualified the popular Churches to bend
the knees! O how the stiff-kneed, starchy congregations insult God to his
face, committing sins enough in their miserable, diabolical, so-called
worship, to send them to hell. The angels in heaven not only bow the knee,
but fall prostrate before God, not reluctantly, but with the greatest delight.
The heathen and Roman Catholics all bow the knee. The Mohammedans
pray five times a day, bowing the knee and even the head until it touches
the earth. The downright insult and blasphemy of the stiff-kneed, starchy,
popular Churches is alarming in the extreme. God Almighty says “Every
knee shall bow of things in heaven, in earth, and beneath the earth.” Rest
assured, his Word will never fail. Hence, it follows, as an irresistible
sequence, that those that do not bow here, will all bow in hell. When I was
a sinner, I bowed on my knees in public worship. Penitent sinners are
always ready to bow the knee. The trouble with the proud, fashionable
Churches is, that they are filled up with impenitent sinners. No wonder
they are opposed to holiness! They are equally opposed to all the work of
the Holy Ghost. If they would yield to his conviction, whole
congregations would be seen bowing the knee to God. Where the Holy
 60
Ghost is obeyed, the people bow the knee in prayer, and stand up
testifying to the work of God in their hearts. Thus prayer and testimony
are the normal differentia of worshipping congregations.

ARGUMENT 6 — GOD WORKS WITHIN, AND WE WITHOUT

12,13. “—Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is
God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his own good pleasure.”
God is the omnipotent agent in salvation, while we are instrumental.
We are not agents, but tools. The reason why people get tired in the
Lord’s work, is because they are not dead. A dead man never gets tired.
Your old hoe never gets tired, and says, “Let me rest.” Hence, we are but
tools in the hands of Omnipotence, who is “working in us, both to will and
to do;” i.e., he gives us the will, and bestows the needed power to do
everything he requires at our hands. The hands of my watch revolve night
and day without fatigue, and never wear out, because the internal
machinery does all the work, and moves the hands in their constant
peregrinations. So God is in me running the machinery, while my members
simply move as they are moved. Hence, we have nothing to do in the plan
of salvation, but ring out an eternal yes to the Holy Ghost, and govern
ourselves accordingly. Jesus came to save, and does save all who let him. It
is only by resisting the Spirit that people make their bed in hell.
14. Full salvation forever sweeps away all murmur and doubt.
15. “In order that you may be blameless and unmixed.” The Greek for
“harmless” is akeraioi, from alpha, not, and keranumi; to mix. Hence, it
means an unmixed experience. The sinner has nothing but depravity in his
heart unmixed with grace.
The wholly sanctified have nothing but grace unmixed with sin; while the
unsanctified Christians have a mixed experience of good and evil; not in the
sense of a chemical combination, but like the wheat in the stack, mixed up
with cheat, chaff, and straw, and needing a steam thresher to separate and
prepare it for the mill. You get your crop of wheat in regeneration, but can
make little use of it till sanctification eliminates the cheat, cockle, chaff,
and trash; then you can take it to the Lord’s mill, get it ground, and have a
banquet.
 61
16. “Unto my boasting in the day of Christ.” Paul constantly keeps before
the people the coming of the Lord, with one hand holding up entire
sanctification, and with the other the Lord’s return to the earth.

ARGUMENT 7 — MARTYRDOM
17. “But if truly I am offered for a sacrifice and the ministry of your faith, I
rejoice, and rejoice along with you all;
18. “But you also rejoice, and rejoice along with me in this same thing.” O
what a contrast this triumph with the howling, shivering, cowardly religion
of the present day! I have already notified my wife to wear no crape when
I die. Mourning for the sainted dead belongs to a former dispensation,
three thousand years behind the age, and is utterly out of harmony with
the victories and triumphs of New Testament sanctification. Here while
Nero’s sword is hanging over Paul’s neck, and he knows not what minute
it will drop and amputate his head (for a part of the punishment of the
martyrs was to give them no notification of their impending doom), in this
precarious attitude Paul here notifies the Philippian saints to get ready to
shout, and to shout along with him; for he is going to have a hallelujah time
when they cut his head off, and he wants all of the saints to be ready to
help him shout. Good Lord, deliver us from a lugubrious religion, that
makes us weep and mourn when there is a chance to go to heaven!
19-24. In this paragraph Paul notifies them of his determination to send
Timothy to them so soon as he learns more about the decision of the
imperial court with reference to himself. He also here speaks of a
lamentable apostasy there in Rome. No wonder the disciples were
discouraged and intimidated when they saw their great leader completely in
the hands of their enemies, and the clouds of persecution accumulating and
the darkness intensifying. Amid these prevailing defections he highly
commends Timothy, his favorite son in the gospel, assuring them that he
will send him to them when he ascertains more satisfactorily the trend of
things appertaining to himself. “I trust in the Lord that I myself will
quickly come to you.” This I rightly believe he did after his trial and
acquittal, as he was charged with nothing criminal in Roman law, but
simply disharmony with the apostate theocracy.
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25-29. Before he got ready to send Timothy, who doubtless carried the
good news of his acquittal along with this letter, Paul sent to them
Epaphroditus, to comfort them till the convalescence of Timothy.
30. “Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, gambling his
life, that he may supply your lack of ministry to me.” In this Paul indulges a
tacit hint to the Philippian saints that should have been helping him push
the battle at Rome and elsewhere with all their might. He also in this letter
very highly commends them for their faithful attention to his temporal
needs, which he can no longer supply, as he faintly wishes his hands were
disencumbered of the prisoner’s chain. Hence, this delinquency was
doubtless in the ministry of the Word and the salvation work. Here we
have a beautiful statement illustrating Epaphroditus’ perfect consecration
to God’s work, in the fact that he staked all he had—physical, mental, and
spiritual—for God, using the gambler’s word, paraboleusamenos, when he
stakes all he possesses in a game of dice. How many of us are like
Epaphroditus, just keeping all we possess on the table staked up for God!
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CHAPTER 3

1. “Finally, brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things unto you
to me is not irksome, but to you it is safe.” Paul felt it his duty to write to
them the very same truth which he had repeated over and over in his
preaching while with them. This is an important argument for the
sanctification of the preachers, which alone can make them utterly dead to
popular opinion. Carnality is always foolishly gaping after something new,
regardless of truth, sense, or salvation. A Methodist preacher, arriving on
his circuit, preached on repentance, came around again and preached on
repentance, and so continued preaching on repentance, till the people,
awfully bored, asked him for a new subject; to whom he responded, “All
right! I will give you a new sermon whenever you repent.” In the olden
time they cried out to the prophets, “Why do you not give us something
new? we are worn out with your old subjects; ‘line upon line, and precept
upon precept.’” When a presiding elder, I always dreaded to see certain
popular, high-soaring, metropolitan pastors light on a city station; for I
knew they would stay the full quadrennium, and freeze the Church into an
iceberg; with etiquettical negative policy, they would antagonize nothing,
preach to please the people, and let them slip through their fingers into
hell. The unsanctified preacher, incompetent to preach the great truths of
experimental salvation over and over, with his eye on the judgment-bar,
where God will require the people at his hands, when he goes to his
appointment, soon preaches all of his gospel sermons. Then he must go off
on wild-goose chases hunting something new, which has no gospel. in it,
and lets the people starve to death in a pile on his hands.

ARGUMENT 8 — COUNTERFEIT RELIGION

2. “Beware of dogs;” not quadruped, but biped dogs. The dog, a most
unclean animal, symbolizes impurity. Holiness is purity. If you are not for
holiness, you are for impurity. Hence, we here have the solemn warning,
“Beware of dogs;” i.e., anti-holiness people, as all such are the advocates,
if not the servitors of impurity. “Beware of the concision.” In Judaism the
physical birth emblematizes regeneration; and the circumcision, eight days
subsequently, signifies sanctification. (Deuteronomy 30:6.) “Concision is
 64
counterfeit circumcision;” i.e., a spurious sanctification. Satan is the great
counterfeiter; he spares none of God’s work, but counterfeits all of it.
Passing himself for God, and his spurious work for God’s genuine, he has
long ago monopolized the religions of the world, filling up Churches with
his own votaries, vainly dreaming that they are worshipping God. A
counterfeit sanctification is the meanest thing in the world, as counterfeit
gold is so much greater loss than silver. How shall we detect this
counterfeit? The next verse gives the answer.
3. “For we are the circumcision, who worship the Spirit of God, truly
rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and having no confidence in carnality.”
Hence, we see that the true sanctification is a pure spiritual experience
characterized by purely spiritual services, rejoicing in Christ alone, and
perfectly free from carnality. O what a contrast with the carnal worship of
popular religion, burdened to death with human institutions, and grossly
ignorant of the pure spirituality characterizing the worshipers of God!

ARGUMENT 9 — LEGALISM
8. “—As to the law a Pharisee;” “As to the righteousness which is in the
law being blameless.” The Pharisees were the orthodox wing of the Jewish
Church, the Sadducees the heterodox, and the poor Essenes living in the
deserts and slums, the holiness people. Though Paul stood on the acme of
orthodoxy, with an irreproachable Christian character, looked upon as an
Israelite in whom there was no guile, a double graduate with a diploma
from the Greek college of Tarsus, and another from the rabbinical
university of Jerusalem, as a preacher in the popular Church without a
peer, yet he was an alien from God and stranger to grace, traveling the
broad road to hell. O the millions who are this day in the same awful
dilemma, fully assured that they are bona-fide Christians serving God,
while they are unconverted sinners, worshipping Satan! What is the
trouble? Like Paul, they are legalists. They fill pulpits and pews, and, I
awfully fear, constitute the rank and file of the popular Churches at the
present day. Their name is legion. You meet them in every land. Though
they are very religious, they have no salvation. Like Paul, they are
perfectly honest; yet they walk in Satan’s midnight, and will soon drop
into hell, unless God, in mercy, shall shed light on them, as in case of Saul,
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while he journeyed to Damascus. The Holy Ghost is the only revelator of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Every soul walks in darkness till he reveals Him to
him, as in case of Saul. What is this awful legalism? Satan’s greased plank,
on which he shoots millions through the Churches into hell. It is simply a
religion of good works, such as Saul and myself had from our infancy (for
my life, like his, was irreproachable from the cradle, being as good a
Church member before conversion as afterwards). The great masses of
Church members at the present day are dumb in the pews, from the simple
fact that they have no experiences to tell; they are depending on “Church
loyalty,” legal obedience, and good works to save them. It is awful to
contemplate the responsibility of pastors who help the devil to palm off
his wholesale delusions on their members, encouraging them to believe that
they are Christians, because they are true and faithful to what they call
“the Church;” meanwhile they are as ignorant of the New Testament
Ecclesia, the Church of God (consisting only of the souls called out of the
world and separated unto God), as the Hottentots of Africa. All of this
legalistic religion, which fills the world today, is nothing but self-
righteousness, “filthy rags,” in the sight of God, and a millstone around the
necks of the poor, deluded devotees, dragging them down to hell.
9. “And may be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is, through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is from God, upon faith.” Nothing but the righteousness of Christ
will ever fortify a soul against the severities of the Divine judgments. Can I
have the righteousness of Christ? Our wonderful Christ has three
righteousnesses. He has a righteousness peculiar to his Divinity and
essential to it, which he will ever retain, and never impart to you or me. He
also has a righteousness peculiar to his humanity and essential to it. This
he will never confer on you or me. Besides, he has a third righteousness,
arising from perfect obedience to the Divine law, actively throughout his
probationary life, and passively when he suffered the full penalty of the
violated law as our substitute. This third righteousness, which is neither
essential to his humanity nor Divinity, nor in any way necessary to his
perfect mediatorial Messiahship, he procured for you and me and all of
Adam’s ruined race. This perfect righteousness God is delighted freely to
impute to every sinner who, in hearty repentance and radical abandonment
of all sin, in the profound realization of his utter fitness only for hellfire,
 66
by simple faith alone casts himself, in a moment of despair, on the mercy
of God in Christ. These sinning-religion people have never learned the first
principles; but poor, deluded legalists, like Saul before he was converted,
“having a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge,” having no
personal acquaintance with God, they walk in spiritual night, die as they
live, honored with complimentary funerals over their dead bodies, while
their souls are in hell.

ARGUMENT 10 — PAULINE EXPERIENCE

10. “To know him.” Paul, standing in the front of the ministry, enjoying
the most gigantic intellect, highest culture, and greatest human honors, was
utterly ignorant of God till that wonderful introduction on the Damascus
road. In a similar manner all souls, who ever reach the kingdom, must
become personally acquainted with Christ. “And the dynamite of his
resurrection.” In regeneration the very same power that raised the dead
body of Christ into life must resurrect your dead soul. When Lazarus had
been raised from the dead, he knew it better than anybody else. Hence, the
Lord’s salvation is the most knowable thing in all the world. “And the
fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death.” In
regeneration, we are raised from the dead; in sanctification, we die. None
but disciples ever go to heaven. We must not only follow Christ to the
manger, and be born of the Spirit in utter obscurity, but we must follow
him to Gethsemane, and there make our complete and final consecration,
enduring the agony of the bloody sweat, when our human will gives up the
world, and consents to die. Then you must see Barabbas go up, and you go
down. If you get sanctified, you must consent to be misunderstood; yes,
and misjudged by all the influential people in the world. You need not be
surprised if the community look upon the saloonkeeper as a better man
than yourself. You must also be nailed to the cross between two thieves;.
i.e.., you must consent to render yourself scandalous for Christ’s sake.
They will consign you a place with the slumites, rustics, and outlandish of
the earth, when you get saved from jewelry, style, needless ornamentation,
foolish fashions, and all sorts of worldly conformity. You must die so dead
to everything but God, that when a non-sympathizing world plunges the
spear of persecution or scandal into your heart, you will not kick. The
Lord needs an army of dead people to conquer the world for Christ. You
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can plug a dead man full of bullets; instead of hurting him, you will only
lose your ammunition. You can not depend on the unsanctified to stand in
front of the battle. They are all afraid of getting hurt. You can make
breastworks of dead men, and they will never flicker. It was Paul’s
privilege, like Jesus, to seal his faith with his blood. You and I may not
enjoy this honor; but we must certainly have the experience which
qualifies us for it.

ARGUMENT 11 — THE GOAL

11. “If, perchance, I may attain unto the resurrection, which is out from the
dead.” Here is a positive allusion to the first resurrection conferred on the
bridehood of Christ at the premillennial rapture of the saints. It is much to
be deplored that this most inspiring theme of apostolic preaching was
permitted to drop out of the pulpit as one of the mournful results of the
Constantinian apostasy, and by some means this wonderful passage was
spoliated of its beauty and force during the Dark Ages, and brought to light
in the Sinaic manuscript discovered by Tischendorf in 1859, which I now
hold in my hand. The English reading of this wonderful passage is not only
destitute of force, but intelligence. Modern theologians have vainly
attempted to explain away the first resurrection by identifying it with
regeneration. Such a construction is utterly untenable, running into
Swedenborgianism, making the second resurrection also spiritual, and
altogether doing away with the resurrection of the body. We see here that
this premillennial resurrection, when our Lord rides down on the clouds
and calls his bride to meet him in the air, is the goal on which Paul’s eye
was fixed in his indefatigable race for glory. This qualification for the
transfiguration and consequent readiness for the Lord’s return to the earth,
was the most inspiring theme of the apostolic age, thrilling Paul and his
comrades with an irrepressible enthusiasm amid all their persecutions,
privations, and conflicts. It is a significant fact that the popular Churches
are silent on the two most absorbing themes of the apostolic ministry; i.e.,
entire sanctification and the Lord’s return to the earth.
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ARGUMENT 12 — PERFECTION OF GLORY VERSUS
PERFECTION OF GRACE
12. “Not that I have already received, or have already been made perfect;
but I persevere, if I may receive that for which I was also received by
Christ Jesus.” Foolish people quote this passage against Christian
perfection, making Paul flatly contradict himself in the fifteenth verse,
where he claims perfection for himself and others. In the twelfth verse he
is speaking of glory, which he will not receive till the end of probation.
This he disclaims. In the fifteenth verse he speaks of the perfection of
grace, which he claims for himself and others. Christ took him into hand
for his complete and final restitution, which will not take place till this
mortal puts on immortality. Paul, with contemporary saints, was on the
constant outlook for the Lord to come and transfigure his body, taking him
up with his bride. Sanctification is Christian perfection, which Paul, in the
fifteenth verse, positively claims for himself and others; while
transfiguration is ultimate perfection involved in the restitutionary work of
Christ, which he has undertaken for Paul and all of his saints. When Paul
lost his head at Nero’s block, his soul was glorified, and thus made perfect
in the final sense here involved. In the first resurrection, for which I am
now looking, his body will leap into glory from the soil of Italy.

ARGUMENT 13 — SPIRITUAL OBLIVION

14. “—Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to
those which are before, I press toward the mark unto the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus.” God, in great mercy by the wonderful
power of his Spirit, drops the black curtain, hiding forever the distressing
sins, awful crimes, dark iniquities, silly follies, and egregious blunders of
the wretched past; thus translating his people into a new world, flooded
with light and cheered with light, and with ten thousand auspicious omens
beckoning them on to ever-brightening scenes and engrossing themes,
culminating in enterprises broadening and towering, destined to sweep on
through the flight of eternal ages. This happy forgetfulness of the dark
past is not merely mental, but a blessed Divine intervention wrought by
the Holy Spirit. When I was in Athens, Greece, in 1895, I visited the old
Stadium, the scenes of those Olympic races to which Paul makes so
frequent allusion. The amphitheater accommodated about one hundred
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thousand spectators, at the base of Mount Parnassus, from which millions
could contemplate the scene. The goal to which Paul and his comrades
were running is none other than his glorified Lord coming back to the earth,
and calling his saints to rise in transfigured glory to meet him in the air.
What an awful pity the Church ever gave up that beautiful and inspiring
goal of the glorified Savior, and substituted the repellent old grim monster!
15. “God will indeed reveal this to you.” Here Paul assures us that all the
perfect saints are in this precipitate race, to meet their glorified Savior and
enter the transfigured state, assuring us that if they are not on that line,
God will reveal it to them.
17. “Be ye imitators of me, brethren.” None but the wholly sanctified could
talk that way.

ARGUMENT 14 — CARNAL ECCLESIASTICISM

18. “For many walk around, whom I frequently mention to you, and now
speak of them even weeping, the enemies of the cross of Christ.” As Christ
was crucified on the cross, so must Adam the first, the body of sin in us,
be crucified, so that we will be (dead to sin and free from it. (Romans
6:22.) This is the work of entire sanctification. Hence, all who oppose it
“are enemies of the cross of Christ.” If you are not for entire sanctification,
you compromise with sin, and consent for it still to live in your soul. This
is the awful attitude of all anti-holiness people.
19. “Whose end is destruction.” There is in very soul an irrepressible
conflict between sin and spiritual life. If sin dies, you live forever. If sin
lives, you die, world without end. “Whose God is their stomach, and their
glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.” These people are blind
to what does not glisten, and deaf to what does not jingle. Money will
always buy the things of temporal life. Hence, finances with them are all
the go. How shall we ever get back to New Testament simplicity? When
money comes in, carnality enters. Then the devil is sure to present himself
“among the sons of God.” The apostolic Churches owned no edifices, and
paid no salaries. Hence, their finances were simple, like our holiness
missions. What a pity there ever was a departure from primitive
simplicity! In the days of the Methodistic fathers, soul-saving was the
great salient work. Now, sad to say, it is raising money. The people are
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run into legal bondage with human institutions, unheard of in the Bible,
with money the ultima thule. The preacher who does not raise the finances
is dishonored and discounted, though he may be “a good man” like
Barnabas, and “much people added unto the Lord” under his ministry.
What is to be the result? for institutions are multiplying and financial
burdens increasing every year. Mirabile dictu! The Protestant Churches are
going at racehorse speed back to Romanism, constantly magnifying
temporal things, to the fatal depreciation of the spiritual. It is an easy
matter for an educated sinner, who is a good socialist and financier, to
occupy the metropolitan pulpits in any of the denominations with
marvelous acceptability. This is a fearful trend, and who can predict the
end?

ARGUMENT 15 — HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP

20. “For our citizenship is in the heavens.” O blessed consolation, that I
am not a citizen of this vain, vile world, but of heaven! We are all
sojourners here: the saints, citizens of heaven; and the sinners, citizens of
hell. Truly it has been said, that “every man speaks the language of his
own country.” Christians in prayer and praise speak the language of
heaven, while sinners in profanity and obscenity speak the language of
hell. All the governments of earth consider it a sine qua non to protect
their own citizens. About forty years ago, while cruel Austria was
crushing the political life out of downtrodden Hungary, the citizens of the
latter fled into all the countries of Europe, and many to America. Among
the latter, Martin Cozta came to our country, passing through the
ceremonies of naturalization, became a citizen of the United States. After
this, having returned to Hungary to bring his father and mother, and being
arrested by the Austrian authorities at Smyrna on the Mediterranean, as a
rebel and refugee, he was cast into prison under sentence of death. In this
awful dilemma he sends for Captain Ingram, who happened to be in that
port in command of the United States war-sloop St. Louis. When the
captain waits on him, he hands him his naturalization papers, satisfying
him that he is an adopted citizen of the United States. The captain appeals
to the Austrian authorities for his release in vain. They treat him with
contempt, bidding him to help himself. But what can he do with a single
sloop and a hundred men in presence of the Austrian general in command
 71
of an army of one hundred thousand? The heroic captain, true to his oath
to protect United States citizens in every land and clime, clears his sloop,
and prepares to fire on the Austrian fleet. They see the emergency
pending, and release Martin Cozta. They could not afford to get into war
with the United States over one little man. All the nations of Greece
rallied, sailed over the Aegean Sea, and besieged old Troy ten long years,
winding up in its capture and destruction, through the famous stratagem of
the wooden horse invented by Ulysses. All this, because Paris, the son of
Priam, the king of Troy, had come over to Greece, and purloined Helen,
the beautiful wife of Menelaus. If the governments of earth thus so
wonderfully protect their citizens, how much more does the government of
heaven protect every saint in all the world? “Truly the angel of the Lord
encampeth around and about them that fear him, and delivereth them.”

ARGUMENT 16 — THE TRANSFIGURATION

“Whence we also look for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21. “Who will fashion the body of our humiliation similitudinous to the
body of his glory.” Entire sanctification takes all of the world out of us,
literally making us unearthly, putting us in the heavenlies; i.e., investing us
with the heavenly nature, the peace, rest, loyalty, faith, obedience, victory,
and happiness peculiar to the inmates of heaven. These citizens of heaven,
while on earth, live constantly watching and waiting the return of their
King, “who shall fashion the bodies of our humiliation,” not “vile bodies.”
We are humiliated while on probation in these mortal bodies. This
transfiguration consists in the elimination of all the gross materiality out of
our bodies, so as to render them imponderable. In that case the Spirit will
be the controlling element, and the body responsive to its incentives, will
move with angelic velocity toward God. We will be transformed and
translated independently of volition, and before we are aware. Doubtless,
translation was the original economy in Eden. If the race had not fallen,
they would have passed their probation and been translated, instead of
dying. How fortunate we are, living away down in the last days of the last
age, amid the aurora of the coming kingdom, when our chances for
translation are so favorable. The true attitude of saintship in the old
dispensation was constant expectancy of Christ. Since he ascended from
Mount Olivet, the inspiration of faith for his return has been infinitely
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greater than before his incarnation. The apostles lived in constant outlook.
We are certainly eighteen hundred years nearer this glorious coming than
they. Hence, I am looking for him night and day. Jesus pronounces an
awful woe on that servant who says, “My Lord delayeth his coming.” The
expectancy is certainly a powerful inspiration to be ready. Entire
sanctification is the only needed qualification. All whose vessels were
filled with oil, went in with a shout of victory. When our Lord comes for
his bride, all of the heavenly citizens will be transfigured and caught up
with the risen saints, to meet the Lord in the air. This transfiguration will
make our bodies like his glorified body, which flew up to heaven from
Mount Olivet. It is wonderful, yet it is true. Lord, help us to be ready,
according to the working of him who is able even to subordinate all things
to himself! Our Omnipotent Christ is not going to leave anything Over
which the enemy can boast, for everything is coming into his glorious
restitution. The soul is restored in sanctification, the body in
transfiguration, den in the millennium, and the heavenly state of this world
in the new creation, following the fiery sanctification simultaneously with
the final judgment at the end of time. (Romans 21:1.)
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CHAPTER 4

2. The Greek reveals that Euodias and Syntyche were women. Paul exhorts
them to harmony in the Lord. The presumption is they differed on some
nonessential points. This is admissible, but in the Church there must be
harmony.
3. “I entreat thee also, true yoke-fellow,”—not revealed who he was;
perhaps Timothy, who carried the letter,—”assist those women who
labored with me in the gospel with Clement.” We see here that the women
assisted Paul in his gospel work at Philippi. He found the first open door
in the woman’s meeting by the riverside. Here, evidently, Lydia, Euodias,
Syntyche, and other godly women did preach the gospel and labor in the
Lord’s vineyard, saving souls. We are the last people to oppose women’s
ministry, when our gospel came in that way. We are all Europeans,
disciples of Paul, who first preached to our ancestors in that women’s
meeting. In harmony with this fact, we see in this letter how very
prominent he renders the women, even more so than the men, specifying
that they assisted him in his evangelistic labors when he was there,
ordering a special message to Euodias and Syntyche, that they should agree
on the essentials of salvation, despite differences on non-essentials.
5. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice.” Of all the Pauline
epistles, this is the most jubilant; yet it was written amid the most
afflictive and alarming environments. Ruthlessly dragged away from his
city mission, guarded by soldiers in the barracks, with Nero’s sword
hanging over his neck, ready to drop any moment and sever his head from
his body, yet this letter rings out a shout of victory from beginning to end.
Lord, help us to do likewise! Paul did not rejoice in his environments, but
in the Lord. If your joy is manward, circumstanceward, or moneyward, it
will be transitory, like the ignis fatuus, whose delusive ray lights up unreal
worlds, and glows but to betray.
I was born and reared in the back hills of Southern Kentucky. Our farm,
containing about one hundred acres, was sterile, filthy, hard to cultivate,
and yielding a stinted harvest to the hand of industry. The debts with
which we began grew on us till the home had to go. It was a sad epoch in
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our history when we had to give up the home of our childhood, with no
prospect of ever owning another. I look upon that emergency in our
history now, as one of the brightest and most merciful interventions of
God’s providence. We read of the eagle “stirring up her nest;” i.e., tearing
it all to pieces, so the eaglets, which are old enough to fly and seek their
fortunes, but too cowardly, are forced to leave their old nest, where they
were hatched, and fly whithersoever the unerring One leadeth them. So it
was with our family. Consequently we four boys all turned preachers, and
have been going to the ends of the earth, blowing the silver trumpet. So,
mark it down, you can always rejoice in the Lord. When there is no Joy in
your environments, then God is showing you his most signal mercy. When
your little child gets hurt, then you give it candy. So, when trouble comes
on you in a Niagara of disappointment, bereavement, and sorrow, then
look out! God is going to surprise you with sunshine and victory.
“Let your clemency be made known to all men; the Lord is nigh.” Our time
here is but a moment, when contrasted with eternity. Hence, we should
constantly walk in the perennial sunbeams of kindness and philanthropy
to all who come within our influence.
6. “Be careful for nothing; but in everything with prayer and supplication
let your requests be made known unto God.” Lord, help us all to obey this
wonderful commandment! The world is dying prematurely, crushed under
intolerable burdens of care. Like the man tottering under his load,
overtaken by the wagon, responsive to the kind invitation, gets in, but still
carries his load on his shoulder: so we give ourselves to the Lord, but hold
to our burdens of care, still crushed beneath our loads. Remember your
Omnipotent Savior can not feel your insignificant burden, though it be
heavy as Pike’s Peak. You compliment him by letting him carry it. When
the clerk came to Alexander the Great, sitting on the throne of the world,
and said: “I think there is a mistake in the order for this immense sum of
money, certainly too great to be paid; so I thought I would bring it to you
for correction.” The prince of all the earth read the order, and, handing it
back to the clerk, thus reprimanded his hesitation: “Why, sir, do you think
anything is too great for me to pay? Do I not own the nations of the earth,
with their treasures, which have been accumulating a thousand years? Do
not the mines of silver, gold, and diamonds in all the earth belong to me?
Of Course, you will pay this order. The honor of my kingdom is at stake.
 75
The greater the amount, the more my kingdom is honored.” If this was true
of Alexander the Great, how infinitely more so of the King of kings! O
how bright this world would be if the people would disencumber
themselves of every burden, casting all their cares on the Lord! Do this,
and your life becomes a cloudless sunshine.
8,9. In this paragraph we have a gorgeous constellation of celestial
diamonds, radiating their beauties to every point of the compass, and
bespangling the hemisphere down to either horizon with glories and
splendors beggaring all human utterance. Bunyan’s Pilgrim saw an old man
bent like the semi-circumference of a wagon-wheel, wearing himself out
with a muck-rake, turning over the trash and filth, looking after gold;
meanwhile, a bright angel on celestial wing is hovering over him, with a
crown of gold ready to place it on his head if he will only straighten up. O
that people would only look on the bright side and talk about bright things;
then they would soon be bright themselves! But they will look on the dark
side, persist in blue talk, and consequently they are blue as indigo, and
they blue everybody about them. Lord, help you to lift up your head, and
see this charming cluster of bright and beautiful graces, and gaze on them
till the splendors of the bright upper world shine through you, flooding
you with light, victory, and glory, and curing the blues, world without end!
If Paul, wearing the prisoner’s chain in Nero’s barracks in full view of the
executioner’s block, could roar out night and day the shout of victory
without a solitary wail of sorrow, good Lord deliver you and me from
every murmur, and sweep from our constitution every symptom of
despondency!
10. “But in whatsoever you were thoughtful about me, you lacked
opportunity.” The Philippian saints were the first-fruits of the European
gospel. True to their responsibilities as the Alma Mater Church, they
promptly sent supplies to Paul, pursuant to their opportunities, which, of
course, were meager, as there were no railroads, and the Adriatic Sea
always terrific for storms, thunders between Greece and Italy. Paul being
so far away, they were much afflicted when they could not reach him with
temporal sustenance, knowing that chains and soldiers disqualified him for
making tents, and thus earning material support for himself and
evangelistic comrades.
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11. “I do not speak concerning deficiency; for I have learned to be content
in whatsoever I am.” See how independently of all human resources Paul
talks, though now utterly disqualified as formerly to labor with his own
hands!
“Our Father is rich in houses and lands:
He holdeth the wealth of the world in his hands.”

God forbid that we should dishonor him by even telling the world of our
needs! Tell Jesus only.
12. “I both know how to be humiliated, and I know how to abound; in
everything and in all things I have learned both how to fatten and to starve,
to abound and to be destitute.”
What is to become of the hireling ministry of the present day, who have
given up God as their temporal support and taken man, thus forfeiting a
thousand blessings incident to that close proximity with our wonderful
Heavenly Father, only available when, like Elijah, we depend on his ravens
to come and feed us? Will the ministry ever get back to the Pauline plan of
self-support in the good providence of God, which never fails? When I
have nothing to eat, I bless God for a fast, enjoy it exquisitely, and the
longer the better. When I have a Benjamin’s mess, I give God the glory!
When I have nothing, I shout his praises.
13. “I am able to do all things through him that filleth me up with
dynamite.” Some transcriber, knowing that Christ is the only one that can
do this, has here supplied the word in the English version. The Lord’s
dynamite is more than a match for all the powers of earth and hell, ready
every moment when ignited by a spark from heaven’s altars, responsive to
faith, to blow up the devil’s batteries, blast and explode all the rock of
inbred sin out of our hearts, sweeping all difficulties out of the way,
whether in the realm of Providence or Grace.
14-16. Here Paul recognizes the kind benefactions of the Philippian saints
in sending him temporal supplies regularly and promptly during all of his
peregrinations in Greece.
17. “Not that I seek after a donation, but I do seek the fruit which
aboundeth unto your credit.” While he was too loyal to God, and too
jealous of his glory, to even insinuate his desire for a contribution; yet his
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zeal for God in their behalf abundantly qualified him to appreciate their
donations as indices of their spiritual health and thrift. Lord, help us to
appropriate the Pauline orthodoxy on the problem of all temporal support,
that it be only encouraged and appreciated as the normal and legitimate
fruit of spiritual life and prosperity. Among the mournful mementos of the
current apostasy is the positive and universal departure from New
Testament precept and example in the temporal department of the popular
Churches. We all witness to our sorrow the abandonment of the spiritual
policy, and the adoption of the carnal. We no longer see a vestige of
apostolic precept in the financial policy of the dominant ecclesiasticisms.
Sad to say, there has been a radical tergiversation. It has been taken out of
the hands of God, and turned over to men, laying on the Church a
mountain of carnality, clogging the wheels of Zion till they can no longer
revolve on the upgrade to the New Jerusalem, but have halted stock still on
the track. Then Satan, slipping in like a weasel, cunningly manipulates the
reversal of the wheels, and has gotten them revolving down to hell, instead
of up to heaven. Without a radical financial revolution and return to first
principles, as plainly revealed in God’s Word, there is no hope of
reformation in the Churches. On the contrary, they will wax worse and
worse, like the antediluvian Churches ripening for destruction. How
strange that preachers of the gospel, recognizing the Bible as their only
guide in all things, spiritual and temporal, will deliberately close their eyes
to the plain and unequivocal Word of God, take up human institutions, and
obey the commands of men!
18. Whereas Timothy was the bearer of this letter from Rome—quite a
long journey, which I traveled in 1895—Paul had previously sent to them
Epaphroditus, preaching the gospel and bearing friendly greetings; by
whom they had sent him an ample supply of temporal support. This he
here recognizes, with thanksgiving to them and to God.
19. “And my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in
glory in Christ Jesus.” If we are only true to God, he is infinitely rich and
merciful to supply all our needs, temporal and spiritual. The poet has well
said:
“Man wants but little here,
Nor wants that little long.”
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The king of England, riding along the highway in his shining vehicle, sees a
ragged boy digging up briers in the fence-corner, orders a halt, and says,
“Boy, what do you get for your work?” “I just gets my victuals and
clothes.” “Go ahead, boy; I am the king of England, and that is all I get.”
O how few people verify God’s promise, “The just shall live by faith!” It
is equally true, temporally and spiritually.
20-22. Though Paul was a prisoner in bonds, guarded by soldiers ready to
cut his head off, he avails himself of the grand open door, and preaches the
gospel in the barracks to soldiers and citizens. Nero, living in his golden
palace, so despised the Christians that he undertook to feed them all to his
lions. He hated Paul as a rattlesnake, and cut his head off. Though he did
his utmost to exterminate Christianity from the earth, yet he could not so
much as keep it out of his own family. Hence, Paul here sends to the
Philippians saintly greetings from all at Rome, “and especially from
Caesar’s household.” Nero lifted the floodgate of imperial persecution
against the Christians. A red river flowed on three hundred years, only
arrested by the conversion of the Emperor Constantine. When I was in
Rome, I stood in the Coliseum, Nero’s theater, with a seating capacity for
one hundred thousand. I saw the old subterranean tunnel, through which
the lions were brought down from their lairs and turned loose on the
Christians, that the cruel multitude might be edified by the bloody
lacerations and carnivorous revelries, as they always had the cruel
monsters well starved for the occasion. Despite all these bloody
trepidations, Paul’s preaching struck fire, not only among others, both
citizens and soldiers, but even entered the emperor’s household, and there
won trophies for Jesus. Amid the awful tide of blood and death, after Paul
and Peter have both flown up to heaven, honored with a martyr’s crown,
and thousands have followed in their bloody track, history drops an item
confirmatory of the blessed stickability of the work in the royal family.
While martyrdom is all the go, and the devouring of the Christians in the
Coliseum by the wild beasts is attracting the heathen millions daily to pour
out their money for a seat in the imperial theater, behold they lead in the
beautiful Julia, the royal heir of the empire, who must share the common
fate of a Christian, and go down in the tide of martyr’s blood, unless she
will recant her faith in Christ, and resume her loyalty to the Roman gods.
All possible efforts are laid under contribution to save the life of the young
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queen. They think surely she will recant and live. The high priest of
Jupiter compliments her with his presence, holding out the royal censer,
and begging her only to drop incense on it one time, thus recognizing the
worship of the Roman gods, and she shall live. They find the royal damsel
immovable by all their bribes, threats, and importunities, as they point her
to the imperial crown on the one side, and the roaring lions on the other.
She responds:
“I have no God but Jesus. I fear not the lions. Do you not see the angels?
The chariot is already lowered to bear me away to a world of bliss.” So she
is abandoned to the lions.
23. “Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” This benediction
is sweet in grace, and beautiful in brevity. It is a mistake to confine
ourselves to the apostolic benediction (2 Corinthians 13:14), which has
been used so excessively as to become stale. You will find a benediction at
the conclusion of every epistle. God gave them to us for our free and
unrestricted appropriation. Therefore, we should use a variety. When you
want a short one, this is splendid; when a long one, you will find
Thessalonians 5:23,24, or Hebrews 13:20,21, all right. Thus we should
avoid monotony.
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APOLOGUE

The Philippian letter is certainly pre-eminent for its beauty, brevity,

vivacity, heroism, diversity in unity, comprehensibility, and especially for
the shout of triumph which rings from Alpha to Omega. The rigor of the
administration, the military environments, the abandonment of fainthearted
friends, and the imminence of cruel martyrdom, all conspired in a pre-
eminent sense to put him on shouting ground. The Bible plan is for God’s
saints to shout down all the Jerichos the world, the flesh, and the devil can
rear up against us. Glory to God! the shout of faith will knock them all
down. Paul had learned how to make them tumble. Hence, this epistle is a
constant roaring shout.
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COLOSSIANS
PROLOGUE

This was the old capital of Phrygia, one of the oldest cities in the world,
long debauched in ignorance, superstition, and idolatry. The Church at this
place had been established by the labors of others, Paul, in person, never
having preached there. In the compilement, this epistle should have
preceded Philippians, as it was written previously, during the occupancy
of the hired house in Rome, before Paul was taken to the barracks. The
writing is evidently contemporary with that of Ephesians, which it
strikingly resembles. Along with the latter and Philemon, it was carried to
its destination by Tychicus and Onesimus. Paul fired no blank cartridges. I
am like the colored man in a Southern camp, where the greatest preachers
in the world had an opportunity alternately to proclaim the living Word.
While a number of persons were expressing their partialities, he interjected,
“I like best the one I hear last.” When I read a Pauline letter, the Spirit
shining down into the deep substrata, and hauling up grand bonanzas
which I never saw before, like the colored man, I think certainly this is the
best epistle he ever wrote. So, look out for wonders as you read
Colossians. I do not know that any other book in the New Testament has
suffered so much in the transcriptions. There is a great diversity in the
Greek of the New Testament; some of it infinitely easier to translate than
others. Portions of this letter are so difficult to translate, that it has
suffered much, not only in the hands of King James’s translators, but their
predecessors. So, look out for surprises, as I have before me only the
critical original by Tischendorf, which God, in his mercy, preserved in the
convent of St. Catherine, on Mount Sinai fifteen hundred years, revealing it
in 1859, just in time to boom the present holiness movement, the glorious
millennial dawn; thus bridging the long, dark chasm of intervening ages,
while the devil’s millennium veiled the world in darkness, and deluged it in
blood a thousand years; meanwhile everything possible was done to
exterminate the Bible, other good books, and blot every vestige of light,
culture, and civilization from the globe.
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CHAPTER 1

1. Observe here the modesty of Luke, the amanuensis, in the omission of

his own name, which certainly had a right to appear with that of Paul and
Timothy.
2. “To the saints in Colosse, and to the faithful brethren in Christ.” You see
here again a confirmation of the fact patent throughout the Scriptures, that
“saint” is the epithet given by the Holy Ghost to the Lord’s people. We
should all accept the name, and recognize the standard which God has
given us.
3. “Always praying for you.” We do not pray enough. We ought to pray
incessantly for all the saints on the earth.

ARGUMENT 1 — FAITH AND LOVE

4. “Hearing of your faith in Christ Jesus, and the Divine love which you
have toward all the saints.” Here, again, we see the magnificent globe of
human salvation, exhibiting the two distinct hemispheres; i.e., the human
and the Divine. We do the believing, and God does the saving. Salvation
must be subjective before it can be objective. We must first receive heaven
in us, before we are in a fix to go to heaven. This Divine love, the heavenly
agapee, constitutes the very atmosphere of heaven. We can not possibly
love in the Bible sense, till we have it in our hearts. It is exotic in
humanity, and indigenous in God alone. When the sinner meets the
condition by an utter and eternal abandonment of sin, and casts himself, in
a moment of desperation, on the mercy of God in Christ by simple faith
alone, he freely forgives him for Christ’s sake, imputing to him the
righteousness of Christ. At that moment the Holy Ghost, the
commissioned executive of the new creation, pours out (Romans 5:5) into
his heart this Divine love, which is the nature of God (1 John 4:18), thus
imparting the Christ-life and nature to the dead soul, resurrecting it into the
new life of God and heaven. The popular Churches on this problem are
wrapped in an awful delusion, preaching human love as a substitute for the
Divine, there being no salvation in it, as illustrated in case of the rich man
in hell, who there had it in behalf of his brethren in the superlative degree.
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Faith is your own act, co-operated by the Holy Ghost, who is always on
hand and ready to give you all the help you need to believe God’s Word,
and as a sinner to trust him implicitly for a free pardon, and as a Christian
to trust him triumphantly for entire sanctification, and as a wholly
sanctified servant of the Lord to trust him incessantly to keep you by his
power, fill you with his Spirit, and give you momentary and perpetual
victory over every foe. All the other graces are resolvable into these two;
i.e., faith and love, which focalize at the constituents of the two spiritual
hemispheres, and represent the entire plan of salvation. Hence, your faith
is positively the measuring line of your experience. When the sinner
believes God’s convicting truth, he always gets convicted. When he
believes converting truth, he always gets converted. When the Christian
believes God’s copious illuminating truth, everywhere revealing inbred sin
surviving in the heart of the regenerate, he invariably gets convicted of it.
When he walks in the light of that conviction, and believes God’s
wonderful truth, revealing entire sanctification in the cleansing blood, he
sweeps into Beulah land with a shout.
5-7. “From the day in which you heard, and have truly and perfectly known
the grace of God.” We know the grace of God in regeneration, but truly,
perfectly know that grace in sanctification. We reach experimental
certainty.
8. “Who also revealed to us your Divine love in the Spirit.” The Holy
Spirit is the only Dispenser of the Divine love, native only in the heart of
God, and poured out into our hearts by the Holy Ghost. (Romans 5:5.)
Hence, Holy Ghost religion only is characterized by love. All others are
carnal and selfish.

ARGUMENT 2 — THE SCHOOL OF THE SPIRIT

9. “That you may be filled with the perfect knowledge of his will in all
spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Man is a trinity like God. His is an
immortal spirit, having a mind and body. In the fall the human spirit was
utterly bereft of Divine life, and has been dead ever since, till the
resurrection of the Holy Spirit raises it into life. Our educational system is
radically defective at this point. As a rule, our colleges, under the auspices
of the different religious denominations, are minus the school of the Holy
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Ghost. They educate the mind, but not the heart, sending out semi-infidels
to occupy the pulpits. We have a few holiness colleges, and need a
thousand more. These schools, like holiness revivals, recognize the Bible as
the only authority, and the great Textbook to which all others are
subordinated. We can not depend on the dualistic system of theology to
educate our young people, if we do not want them to graduate like
Samson, shorn of his locks, to go out and grind in the mills of Dagon all of
their lives. We must have teachers filled with the Holy Ghost. The
holiness movement must take our schools into hand, if we would supply
the world with able ministers of the New Testament. Instead of spending
four years studying heathen authors as I did, and many others are now
doing, we should make out our Latin course in the Latin Bible, and our
Greek course in the Greek Bible, and likewise with the Hebrew. It is a
shame on the escutcheon of Christianity to educate our young people in
the heathen classics. I would rather than a million of dollars today I had
spent my four years in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew Bible, instead of the
pagan authors. It is high time we would throw off this semi-paganism
which we carried out of the Dark Ages. If we are going to save the world,
we must have Spirit-filled teachers as well as preachers. We must wake to
the fact that the Bible is the only Book, and let all others be merely
subsidiary. The secret of the awful apostasy now so fearfully prevailing in
the Churches is, that the pulpits are filled with intellectual giants and
spiritual babies (in the same person).
10. “That you walk worthily of the Lord in all loyalty.” All of this clamor
about Church loyalty is heretical and misleading. The Bible says nothing
about it, but teaches us to be loyal to God. If you are loyal to God, you
are loyal to everything in Church and State which is in harmony with God,
and disloyal to everything which is disharmonious with God. When you
let any one but God expound your loyalty, look out! There is danger
ahead. There is where all of the martyrs bled. Be loyal to God alone,
revealed in his Word, Spirit, and providence. Abide your destiny right
there. If God needs a martyr, put in the first bid. If Church and State are
loyal to God, I gladly accept of their company. If they are disloyal to God,
I am disloyal to them.
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ARGUMENT 3 — GOD’S DYNAMITE
11. “Being dynamited with all dynamite according to the power of his
glory.” Paul, in Romans 1:6, defines gospel the
“dynamite of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.”
Hence, this power (Greek, dynamite) is the only gospel. The trouble with
the pulpit nowadays is the absence of the dynamite, which alone can blow
sin out of the soul, and the devil out of the Church. Dynamite is like
powder, but infinitely more so. The preachers are afraid to handle it, lest it
blow their Churches all to pieces. They need not be afraid, for it can not
blow out anything but sin, which is bound to come out, or the devil will
get them. Some are willing to take the dynamite of conviction for sinners,
and regeneration for penitents, but not willing to take the dynamite of
sanctification for Christians. Shall we not walk in the footprints of Paul,
and go for the entire bill of fare, and get the people dynamited with all
dynamite? God forbid that we should leave out any of heaven’s dynamite!
In so doing, we take an awful risk. Let us receive the dynamite of
conviction, regeneration, and sanctification, and henceforth be true to our
commission, do our utmost to get our people all dynamited with all
dynamite.

ARGUMENT 4 — GOD’S TREE

13. “Who delivered us from the power of darkness, and transplanted us
into the kingdom of the Son of his love.” This transplanting (not translating,
as E.V., which takes the body) includes sanctification. We are all born into
this world mere seedlings of Adam the First, and utterly incompetent to
bear good fruit (a fact well-known to all fruit-growers). Conversion puts us
in the Lord’s nursery, and regeneration grafts the Divine nature in us. If we
abide in the nursery indefinitely, we will be too much crowded up and
encumbered to ever bear fruit. The frugiculturist in due time spades us up
by the roots, trims all of our limbs off, and many of the roots; i.e.,
sanctifies us wholly (on the negative side); then he carries us out into a
‘large place,” where we will have plenty of room, as trees in the orchard
are forty feet apart. Then follows the great fruit-bearing period after we are
transplanted into the kingdom of the Son of His love. The unsanctified
Christians are like the tree, spending its life in the nursery, no place to bear
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fruit. We must be closely trimmed, put out in the rich soil, unprotected, if
we would be truly fruitful.
14,15. —”First begotten of all creation,” as we see from verse 18; this
means the first to enter the transfigured state. A number had been raised
from the dead before Christ, but none transfigured. As the transfiguration
is the consummation of the resurrection out of mortality, it is referred to in
these Scriptures, thus confirming the actual precedence and pre-eminence
of Christ.

ARGUMENT 5 — GOD CREATIVE IN THE SECOND PERSON

16. “Because in Him were created all things in the heavens and upon the
earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or lordships or governments
or authorities. All things were made by him and unto him.”
18. “Himself is the head of the body, the Church; who is the beginning, the
first-begotten from the dead, in order that in all things he may be pre-
eminent.
19. “And in him all fullness was pleased to dwell.
20. “And through himself to reconcile all things unto himself, making peace
through the blood of his cross, through himself, whether things upon the
earth or things in the heavens.” We have wonderful and, to the unspiritual,
paradoxical revelations in this prolix quotation. The transcendent intellect
and liberal culture of Paul well adapted him to the instrumentality of the
Holy Ghost in the evolution of these inscrutable mysteries. The
singularity of the word heaven in your translation is due to the
astronomical incredulity of the translators, as the Greek is uniformly in the
plural number, corroborating astronomy in its revelation of an infinite
plurality of worlds, constituting the celestial universe. Already one billion
and one hundred and seventy millions have been discovered, which in all
probability constitute but a fraction of God’s universe, as the telescope
rests upon vast fields of nebulae, which are evidently systems of worlds
so infinitely distant as to be unindividualizable by the most powerful
telescopes. We are here informed that the Son of God, our wonderful
Christ, who lay in the Bethlehem manger, and hung on the Cross of
Calvary, created all of these stupendous worlds, as many of them are of
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tremendous magnitude. Saturn, our neighbor, is eleven hundred times as
large as this world, and Jupiter, a still nearer neighbor, fourteen hundred
times as large as the earth. Hence, after all, we find that our great world is
but a speck floating in the ethereal firmament of God’s boundless universe.
How glorious it will be when I get my immortal pinions to wing my flight
from world to world, exploring with adoring admiration the stupendous
works of God, and cultivating an acquaintance with the unfallen
intelligences occupying millions of immortal worlds. Yet your Savior and
mine, as here we have clearly revealed, created every one of these worlds.
Not only did he create the multiplied millions of worlds, flaming suns, and
wandering comets, which speed their flight through the void immense, but
he created the human race, every angel that shines and shouts, the
melodious seraphim, the adoring cherubim, the tall sons of God whose
triumphant shout answered the anthem of the morning stars which sang
together at creation’s birth, the mighty archangels and the heavenly
hierarchies who fill the responsible offices in the perfect organizations,
principalities, and powers which characterize the heavenly universe. If the
Son executed the stupendous work of all creation, where were the Father
and the Holy Ghost? What did they do? You must bear in mind there are
not three Gods, but one only. Hence, as we see in the next chapter, “In
him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead.” Hence, the Father and the
Spirit are in the Son in creation, redemption, and administration. You must
not differentiate the Divine persons indefinitely, lest you run into
tritheistic heresy of three Gods instead of One, which is the first departure
into pagan polytheism. This one God manifests himself to our finite
senses, and accommodates himself to the plan of salvation in three distinct
persons. How are other worlds besides ours affected by the mediatorial
work of Christ? The revolt of this world from the Divine government was
calculated to jostle the loyalty, and wield an alienating influence on the
inhabitants of other worlds, so many as are still on probation like ours.
Hence, all worlds as here revealed are reached by the mediatorial
administration, culminating in the complete restoration of this world to its
celestial loyalty and the perfect reconciliation of all other worlds, and their
final and complete fortification against all liability to apostasy, thus in the
grand and triumphant finale sweeping the last probability of defection
forever from the celestial universe, and eternally establishing all worlds in
their Divine loyalty. It is here said that our Savior is the beginning; i.e., he
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existed alone in the universe before a solitary star had twinkled, or a sun
had shot forth one cheering ray. Doubtless the work of creation is still in
progress, omnipotence in his glorious majesty tossing other mighty
worlds, and populating them with immortal intelligences. We also have it
here stated that “Himself is the head of the body, the Church.” In
Ephesians 1:23, we have the climacteric affirmation that the Church is the
“fullness of him that filleth all things in all things.” O the unfathomable
depths, the immeasurable altitudes, the infinitesimal latitudes and
longitudes of the Divine benefactions in behalf of poor, fallen humanity!
With adoring wonder we will sing the song of redemption forever! How
paradoxical when we contemplate the ineffable glory of the unfallen angels,
the inconceivable grandeur and sublimity, splendor and beauty, radiant
from the immortal visage of cherubim, seraphim, archangel, and heavenly
hierarchies, undimmed by a solitary cloud of sorrow through all the long
tread of eternal ages! Lost in unutterable bewilderment while
contemplating these matchless splendors, glories, and triumphs
characteristic of the mighty unfallen intelligences, who wing their flight
through celestial ether! Is it possible that in the wonderful dispensations of
grace and glory, the blood-washed, fire-baptized Church of the First-born
is destined to stand upon the topmost pinnacle of the universe, and
outshout Gabriel and Michael?
Lord, shine on us from heaven, and illuminate us with a glimpse of the
glories awaiting the Bridehood of Christ! While all the angels, archangels,
cherubim, seraphim, and heavenly hierarchies rank as servants of God, the
Bride of Christ will certainly enjoy an honorary pre-eminence and a
participation of royal favor utterly staggering the loftiest flights of human
imagination. If the human intellect could only apprehend these peerless
glories, there would be a universal stampede into the kingdom. But, alas!
they are only spiritually discerned.

ARGUMENT 6 — HOLINESS THE ULTIMATUM

22. “—To present you holy and blameless and unrebukable in His
presence.” Here Paul reaches the culmination of his prologue, running into
a transcendent climax on holiness, the end of the apostolic ministry. No
wonder he reaches this conclusion after the wonderful affirmations on the
Christhood, leading human thought up to the highest pinnacle of the
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created universe, amid the splendors and glories of cherubim and seraphim,
to gaze upon the unparalleled beauties of the glorified bridehood. No
wonder he reminds us of the absolute necessity that we be holy and
blameless and irreproachable in his presence. The slipshod theology that
would satisfy carnal people short of entire sanctification will never get in a
million miles of the glorified bridehood. It is a wholesale delusion and
caprice of the devil.
23. “If ye abide, having been grounded in the faith, firm and immovable
from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard.” The holiness which Paul
preaches is no superficial affair; it goes down through all the mud, sand,
and slate, and builds its superstructure on the everlasting Rock, destined to
stand forever unshaken by cyclones, eternally towering, the admiration of
angels and redeemed spirits. This experimental holiness gives you a
permanent and abiding settlement in Christ, no longer the sport of the
billow, the caprice of the storm. “Preached in all creation, which is under
heaven;” not as E.V. reads, “to every creature,” as if the gospel had
reached all people in Paul’s day; but it is for the whole world.

ARGUMENT 7 — OUR AFFLICTIONS

SUPPLEMENTARY TO THOSE OF CHRIST
24. “Now I rejoice in sufferings in your behalf, and fill up the residue of the
afflictions of Christ in my flesh, in behalf of his body, which is the Church.”
There is a wonderful significance in the atonement of Christ infinitely
transcending all human comprehension. While “he trod the wine-press
alone,” and there was none to help, yet the old dispensation is flooded
with symbolic blood flowing from the dying animals four thousand years
bleeding on Jewish altars. King Solomon slaughtered twenty-two thousand
oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep at the dedication of the
temple, all these rivers of blood adumbrating the bleeding Christ on the
cross. In the gospel dispensation the pagan emperors of Rome kept the
blood of God’s saints flowing three hundred years, whom Romanists and
Moslems soon succeeded in the bloody work of martyrdom, till history
foots up the paradoxical hosts of two hundred millions of our Lord’s
disciples who have followed him in his bloody track to Calvary. Besides,
no tongue can tell the sufferings of God’s saints, who have never enjoyed
the privilege of sealing their faith with their blood. While we all recognize
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our wonderful Savior as the Healer of our bodies, yet we read, Romans
8:28,
“God worketh together for good all things to them that love God.”
Hence, we see that, in a manner to us wrapped in mystery, our wonderful
Savior makes all the afflictions, troubles, and trials incident to this life a
great blessing to his true people; not only to the sufferers, but to others
indefinitely. “All who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer
persecution.” There are gracious possibilities and susceptibilities of the
Divine glory revealed through afflictions, which are utterly out of our reach
in health and prosperity. Let us remember it is a glorious privilege and a
rich source of blessing to suffer in the kingdom and patience of our
adorable Savior.
25. “Whose minister I became according to the economy of God, which
was given unto me for you to verify the Word of God.
26. “The mystery which was hidden from ages and from generations, and
is now revealed to his saints.” This wonderful mystery, whose revealment
was postponed four thousand years, is none other than the incarnation of
Christ, literally the climax of all mysteries; i.e., the immaculate and
incomprehensible Creator of the universe invested in mortal humanity. The
heathen Greeks and Romans had inklings of the incarnation, and often their
poets described the Roman gods as visiting the earth in human form. Christ
excarnate was on the earth from the days of Eden, saving all who would
give him a chance. But the incarnation, the culminating glory of the
mediatorial intervention, was in wisdom and mercy postponed till the
myths and fables of primitive ages gave way to reliable history, competent
to appropriate that greatest of all events, and transmit it securely to all
subsequent ages.
27. “—Who is Christ in you the hope of glory.” The Christ nature is the
second Adam created in our hearts by the Holy Ghost in regeneration.
This creation bringing the Christ nature into your heart is the only hope of
glory. Hence, without the true regeneration of the Holy Spirit there is no
hope beyond this fleeting life. O how radically defective is popular religion
on regeneration! A Methodist bishop recently stated in presence of a large
audience, “Not more than one Methodist in ten is this day living in the
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conscious favor of God.” What an awful defection! I remember well fifty
years ago when none but class-meeting goers could be Methodists.

ARGUMENT 8 — PERFECTION THE ULTIMATUM

OF THE PAULINE MINISTRY
28. “Whom we preach admonishing every man and teaching every man in
all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ.
29. “For which indeed I labor, agonizing according to his energy, which
worketh in me with dynamite.” How an immortal man destined quickly to
leave his pulpit and stand before the judgment-bar, there to give an account
of his ministry, can open his Bible and read these flaming declarations of
inspired Paul, and then not only fail to preach Christian perfection, but
have the effrontery to antagonize it, is a mystery to me indissoluble. I
preached fifteen years before I received the experience of perfection, but I
always preached it in the honesty of my heart, and the candor of my
convictions, though like a blind dog in a meathouse, smelling the meat and
jumping after it, but as apt to jump the wrong way as the right. We live
amid the awful fulfillments of the latter-day prophecies, when “men will
not endure sound doctrine.” John Wesley advised his people, when a
preacher spoke against perfection, quietly to get up and leave. Now, sad to
say, his so-called gospel sons speak against it with impunity. Wesley said,
that any man who could take the vows of a Methodist preacher, and go
back on Christian perfection, was fit for any other place than the pulpit.
No honest person can read the two verses at the head of this argument, and
not see beyond the possibility of cavil that Paul and his comrades made
Christian perfection the constant burden of their preaching and pastoral
labor, doing everything in their power by faithful warning against
everything out of harmony with perfection and importunately and
indefatigably laboring night and day, teaching the people the Word of the
Lord and the way of salvation, thus leading every person into the
experience and doing their utmost not only to bring all into the experience,
but to establish them there, sedulously fortifying them against apostasy.
Hear him certify, “for which (perfection) indeed I labor agonizing.” Do
you not know that agonize is the strongest word in the English language? It
is of Greek origin, and means the awful fight of the gladiators in the
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Coliseum; where they met and fought for life, the contest ending only in
the death of one or both of the gladiators. So Paul certifies that he is
striving for the perfection of every person, just like the gladiator struggled
with all the power of every nerve and muscle, fists and feet, teeth and
toenails, for dear life. Paul says he was thus agonizing, “according to His
energy, which worketh in me with dynamite.” Not only did Paul use all of
his own power, physical, intellectual, and spiritual, but he lays under
contribution all the Divine energy imparted to him by the Holy Ghost,
“working in him with dynamite.” When men of science discovered the
wonderful mechanical power called dynamite a few years ago, they found
no word in the English vocabulary competent to describe this greatest of
all mechanical powers; consequently they went to the old Greek, and took
the very word used so frequently by the Holy Ghost in the New
Testament to reveal the power that defeats the devil, and explodes sin out
of the human heart. Paul declares that the Divine energy wrought in him
with dynamite, thus qualifying him for the climactic work of his ministry;
i.e., leading “every person” into perfection. Woe unto the man who dares
to intrude into the sacred desk, and not only prove delinquent in preaching
perfection, but even have the diabolical audacity to oppose it! Infinitely
better for that man that he had never been born. The preacher’s hell is, of
all, the most terrible. I have been preaching forty-four years in my humble
way; if, in the end, hell should be my doom, I would gladly exchange
places with the gambler or the saloonist; but, glory to God! I am a long
way from hell, and running heavenward at racehorse speed. Yet I am on
probation, liable to fall and make my bed in hell. God, help me to be true
the little remnant of my pilgrimage!
The controversy on perfection in the modern pulpit is a confirmation of
the awful infidelity which has flooded our Churches like avalanches from
the bottomless pit. Perfection is the battle-cry of the apostolic ministry,
the great salient fact culminating in every epistle, standing out so boldly as
to sweep all candid controversy forever from the field. It is like the
atonement of Christ, so patent that “he who runs may read.” Good Lord,
have mercy on the preacher so blind as not to read Christian perfection
from the Alpha to Omega of the New Testament, and pity the man so
fraught with demoniacal delusion and Satanic effrontery as to try to
explain it away!
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CHAPTER 2

1. It had not been the privilege of the beloved apostle in person to meet the
saints of Colosse and Laodicea, his ministerial comrades having enjoyed
that honor.
2. “In order that their hearts may be comforted, being cemented together in
Divine love and in all the riches of the full assurance of understanding.”
The Oriental cement is wonderful, utterly obliterating all seams and
consolidating all the fragmentary rocks into a vast monolith. When I
ascended to the roof of Simon the tanner in Joppa, that I might kneel on
the roof where Peter was praying when the messengers of Cornelius
arrived, I observed that the whole house was a solid limestone from the
foundation to the roof, including the stone stairway on the outside, the
cementation so perfect that I could not recognize a seam anywhere,
impressing me as if the whole house had dropped solid from the hand of
the Creator. Such is the mystical union of all the members constituting the
bride of Christ, “cemented in Divine love.” This is all descriptive of the
sanctified experience for which the “full assurance” is but another name.
“In the perfect knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ.” The Greek
word here, “knowledge,” E.V., is epignosin, from gnosis, knowledge, and
epi, perfect. Hence, it means perfect knowledge of the mystery. We receive
a knowledge of this wonderful mystery of salvation in regeneration; but it
is not free from the liability of interruption ever and anon by the clouds of
doubt and fear, prone to rise out of the old bogs of inbred sin still surviving
in the deep interior of the spiritual realm. Entire sanctification must come
to our relief, expurgating all inbred corruption. Then we will walk in
cloudless day, delighted in the victories of experimental certainty.
3. “In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” While
knowledge is the wonderful insight into Divine truth, imparted by the
infallible Revelator, wisdom is that blessed enduement of heavenly
gumption which we constantly need to qualify us to make a correct
application of this wonderful supernatural knowledge revealed in God’s
Word, Spirit, and providence.
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4. “I say this, that no one may deceive you in a persuasive discourse.” This
is a solemn warning against Satan’s preachers, whose strong forte is soft
palaver, winning words, and genial manners, pandering to the prejudices of
all and antagonizing none, so soft and polite that butter will hardly melt in
their mouths. An old bishop in his cabinet, surrounded by the elders,
receives a petition from a metropolitan Church, “Please send us a round
man, who will please all the people.” Pausing a moment, he observes,
“There is but one round figure, and that is Zero; the other nine all having
sharp points and corners. So I hope I have no such a man in this
Conference as this petition calls for; i.e., naught. Tell them I can not
supply them, but they can pick such a one almost anywhere.”

ARGUMENT 9 — SANCTIFIED AS CONVERTED

6. “Therefore as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him.” You
received him by faith and by faith alone when a poor sinner, and he
converted your soul. Now do not plunge into the heresy of the popular
pulpits, and conclude that you are to be sanctified by growth or by—i.e.,
works—but remember that you are sanctified precisely as you are
converted; i.e. by faith, and by faith alone.
7. “Having been rooted and grounded in Him, and confirmed in the faith
as you have been taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” The Bible contains
but a few primal truths, which are enforced by a vast diversity of imagery
deduced by the Holy Ghost from every ramification of human life and
employment and every department of the material world. The great truth
revealed in the Bible is the compound problem of sin and its remedy. Here
Paul gives us a grand double metaphor, illustrating entire sanctification by
a tree and a house. The lateral roots of the tree represent the justified
experience, while the long, powerful, trunky tap-root penetrating far down
into the deep interior of the earth, coiling around the eternal strata and
holding the tree steadfast amid the storms of centuries, beautifully
symbolizes entire sanctification. The tree without a tap-root flourishes
amid calm and sunshine, but is ruthlessly torn out by the roots when
caught in the Briarean arms of the cyclone. So the unsanctified Christian is
all right when skies are clear and seas are calm, but hopelessly wrecked in
the raging storm. The other metaphor is that of the house whose
foundation is laid deep down on the everlasting foundation of the earth,
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and solidly built up into a magnificent superstructure. The winds blow and
the floods come down, but it stands unshaken like a rock in midocean,
defiant of every storm. Conversion is a real experience, but it is superficial,
neither descending down to the bottom rock nor ascending up to Pisgah’s
delectable summit.
8. “See that no one shall be leading you through philosophy and empty
delusion, according to the—commandment of men, according to learning of
the world, and not according to Christ.” Paul’s prophetic eye is wide open
in all of this epistle, contemplating in vivid panorama the delusive
humanisms of the present day. The Bible is the only authority in this
world, and the only guide to heaven. How few people are free! Spiritual
and mental chains and slavery everywhere abound. Science and philosophy
out of harmony with the Bible are all false.
9. “Because in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” In the
body of Christ on earth and in heaven actually dwelleth the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost. Hence, we have in our Jesus all of the divinity and
humanity, all salvation, authority, and power in the whole universe,
temporal and spiritual. O what a wonderful Savior we have! We need
nothing else. In him we have everything pertaining to this life and that
which is to come. Away with all humanisms! When they come, the devil
always avails himself of the door ajar.
10. “Ye are complete in him who is the head of all government and
authority.” Give up all of your human delusions, and take Jesus only for
everything you need in time and eternity.

ARGUMENT 10 — CIRCUMCISION, BAPTISM, AND

SANCTIFICATION SYNONYMOUS
11. As physical birth in Judaism emblematized regeneration, circumcision,
following quickly, typified sanctification. (Deuteronomy 30:6.) Here we
know it is spiritual, as it is “made without hands;”
12. As the baptism here mentioned is in grammatical and logical apposition
to circumcision, and only separated by a comma, it is synonymous with it.
The resurrection mentioned is by the Spirit, as it is by the same power
that raised the body of Christ from the dead; i.e., the omnipotence of the
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Holy Spirit. It is parallel with Romans 6:4-6, where the crucifixion of the
old man, his burial into the death of Christ, and the resurrection of the new
man, are all imputed to baptism. It is none other than the one baptism
(Ephesians 4:5) in the glorious plan of salvation. Is that baptism a burial?
Not so revealed. We are buried by baptism; i.e., the burial of the old body
of sin is one of the effects of baptism, like the crucifixion; but the baptism
is the agent, while the crucifixion and burial are the wonderful work
wrought by the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

ARGUMENT 11 — THE CROSS IS UNIVERSAL VICTORY

13. “—Quickened along with him.” “Quickened” is zoopoiese, from zoe,
life, and poieo, to create. Hence, to create life in the dead soul.
Regeneration is a stupendous work—a de novo creation—as literal as the
creation of a world. The great trouble with the Churches is at this point.
All regenerated people long for holiness. Others do not want more, because
they have never had a taste. A dead man does not want his dinner.
14. “Having blotted out the handwriting which was against us in creeds,
which was detrimental to us, and took it from the midst, nailing it to the
cross.” “Ordinances” in E. V., here does not mean Divine ordinances like
baptism and the Eucharist, but human ordinances; i.e., human creeds,
decrees, opinions, and authorities, which in all ages have enslaved the
mind, conscience, soul, and spirit of generations. All these—i.e., all human
authorities—Christ nailed to the cross when he died to redeem us from
chains of sin, bound on us by men or devils in all ages. Why don’t you
claim your perfect enfranchisement, and go to shouting, since Christ has
snapped every chain and smashed every fetter, and made you free as an
angel; i.e., free to do everything good and nothing bad? When human
authority corroborates the Divine, you incidentally obey; when there is a
conflict, your perfect freedom puts you on God’s side.
15. “Having spoiled governments and authorities, he publicly exposed
them, triumphing over them on it;” i.e., on the cross. Unutterable and
transcendent victory! When Christ died on the cross he publicly exhibited
to a gazing world the utter ruin of all human governments and authorities,
political and ecclesiastical. This victory is to be verified in the fulfillment
of the Father’s promise, “I will make thine enemies thy footstool.” O the
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chains of slavery with which Babylon has bound the consciences and
blinded the minds of earth’s millions the last fifteen hundred years! How
many people this day enjoy the wondrous freedom which Jesus purchased
with his blood? He said, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Yet
to this day the world is in bondage to the devil and the priest. Even the
Protestant Churches en masse are in legal bondage, new institutions
unheard of in the Bible being constantly invented to tighten the yoke and
add to the burden, prejudicing the world against the very name of religion.

ARGUMENT 12 — VISIBLE RELIGIONS:

CARNAL AND COUNTERFEIT
16. “Let no one judge you in meat or in drink, or in participation of a feast,
or of the new moon or of Sabbaths.” The old law of restriction on meats
was nailed to the cross, universal liberty peculiar to the gospel
dispensation, the typical significations of “clean” and “unclean”
superseded in the spiritual dispensation of entire sanctification; meanwhile
we are to live hygienically and harmonically with the endless diversity of
variant constitutions and climates. On the drink problem we should all be
Nazarites unto the Lord, as they were the holiness people of the old
dispensation, and most radical teetotalers relative to all intoxicants. Coffee
and tea are admissible under hygienical restrictions. I much enjoy the
privilege of abstinence from all nervines. As to festivals, be sure that you
follow the Lord. Do not hold them in the house of God. (1 Corinthians
11:22.) “Sabbaths,” in the original, is in the plural number, having
prophetic reference doubtless to the controversy now prevailing on that
subject. In Matthew 28:1, the Greek reads, “At the dawn toward the first
of the Sabbaths,” confirming the conclusion that both days were
recognized at the time of the writing; i.e., the Jewish Sabbath, which was
the last day of the week, and the Christian Sabbath; the first day of the
week, so memorialized by our Lord’s resurrection as ever afterward to be
denominated the Lord’s day. The Christian Church began all Jews, in a
century eliminating the Jewish element and becoming Gentiles. Of course
the apostles and pentecostal converts kept the Jewish Sabbath as well as
the Lord’s day, till the Jewish element evanesced after the destruction of
Jerusalem by the Romans, A.D. 73. There are fundamental reasons arising
out of the genius of the gracious economy, which justify the change from
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the last to the first day. The law says, “Work first, and then rest,” and if
you do not finish your work, you shall not rest. Hence, the pertinency of
the last day under the law dispensation. The gospel says, “Rest first, and
then you will be in good fix to do your work,” as a well rested man will do
about ten times as much work as a tired man. Besides, we have clear and
positive proof of the change, and the observance of the first day by the
primitive Christians. The bloody persecution inaugurated by Nero, in
which Paul lost his head and Peter was crucified, lasted three hundred
years, during which martyrs’ blood flowed like rivers. When a student in
college, I read the Roman historians, Sallust, Pliny, and Seutonius, who
lived and wrote during those bloody centuries. As they were heathens,
having no sympathy with Christianity, they are certainly impartial
witnesses to the current events of the times. In their simplicity and candor
they chronicle their historic sketches of the Christians, describing them as
a strange, bigoted, fanatical sect, the followers of one Jesus, who was
crucified under the reign of Tiberius and the procuratorship of Pontius
Pilate at Jerusalem, whom they certify to have risen from the dead, and
they worship him as a God, though the good emperors had done their
utmost to reconcile these fanatical people, even proposing to confer the
apotheosis upon Jesus Christ, thus adopting him as one of their own gods,
to be worshipped along with Jupiter, Apollo, Mercury, Venus, Minerva,
and Diana. But these incorrigible fanatics treat with utter contempt all of
the good old Roman gods, obstinately refusing to worship any god except
Jesus Christ. In their simplicity they described the persistent efforts of the
emperors to correct and loyalize this disturbing element in the empire.
Then they proceed to describe the arraignment, trial, and martyrdom of the
Christians. When persons were suspected of being Christians, they were
arrested and arraigned before a civil magistrate. Then they asked them the
question, “Dominicum servasti?” “Have you kept the Lord’s day?” The
answer came promptly, “Christianus sum,” “I am a Christian,”
“Intermittere non possum,” “I am not able to omit it.” This is positive and
unequivocal proof that they kept the first day of the week, which, from
the apostles, was called the Lord’s day. If Saturday had been the day, they
would have asked them, “Sabbaticum servasti,” “Have you kept the
Sabbath day?” The very fact that they never asked them if they had kept
the Sabbath day, but always, “Have you kept the Lord’s day?” is
unequivocal proof that they kept the first day of the week. While we have
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this clear and unequivocal assurance of the change from the seventh to the
first day, simultaneously with the change from the Jewish to the Christian
dispensation, we would subjoin,
“If you have any conscientious scruples that you ought to keep
Saturday as a holy Sabbath, we exhort you to satisfy those
convictions in the observance of that day. In that case, you will
keep both days, as you must keep Sunday, conservatively of the
conscience of Christendom.” (1 Corinthians 8:12.)
Thus you will keep both days, the former pursuant to your own
conscience and the latter the conscience of the Lord’s people. An easy
way to settle the whole matter, and sweep controversy from the field, is
for you to get sanctified wholly, and walk with Jesus in the beauty of
holiness. Then you will have seven Sabbaths in the week, instead of one.
The history of the apostolic Church during the early centuries utterly
upsets the allegation that the Emperor Constantine, who was not
converted till the fourth century, made the change from the seventh to the
first day; while the fiction that the popes did it is still more at random, as
there never was a pope till the seventh century. Doubtless, Constantine
and the popes, like all other ecclesiastical leaders, frequently sent out
edicts exhorting the people to keep the Christian Sabbath. There is no
more reason why we should Judaize on the Sabbath dogma than that we
should go back to the Jewish dispensation on other things. God wants
holy hearts. In that case, all days will be holy. It is the wildest fanaticisrn
to magnify holy days, instead of holy hearts.
17. “Which things are a shadow of the things to come.” These Old
Testament institutions all symbolize the glorious spiritual experiences of
the pentecostal dispensation. Sabbath is a Hebrew word, and means rest. It
symbolizes the perfect repose of the sanctified soul in Jesus. It is an awful
mistake to keep the eye always on the shadow and miss the substance, like
Aesop’s dog in the fable, walking through the creek with a piece of meat in
his mouth, and, seeing his shadow in the water, thinking it was another dog
carrying a piece of meat, leaped at the shadow, dropping his meat to get
the other, and, losing all, came out of the water meatless and hungry. If
you have perfect rest in Jesus, you have an everlasting Sabbath in your
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soul. If you have not got the soul-Sabbath, the devil will get after all of
your zeal about days.
“But the body is of Christ”— that is the thing for you to settle—is that you
are a bona fide member of the New Testament Church; i.e., the Divine
Ecclesia, who, responsive to the call of the Holy Ghost, have come out of
the world, and separated themselves unto God. This blood-washed Church
of the First-born is called the body of Christ. If you are saved and
sanctified, and thus a bona fide member of the body of Christ, the day
problem, along with all other symbolisms, will take care of itself.
18. “Let no one, pursuant to his own will, rob you of your crown in
humiliation and worship of the angels.” Then the Church, which had been
kept pure by martyr blood and fire three hundred years, during which she
pushed her conquest to the ends of the earth, and soon would have
prepared the world for her Lord’s return, received the sudden uplift into
power and riches through the conversion of Constantine, the Roman
Emperor, she soon plunged headlong into the darkness and secularism of
Roman Catholicism, and set up the worship of angels, to which Paul
alludes: “Thrusting in those things which he has seen, being vainly puffed
by the mind of his depravity.” Here we see a sweeping condemnation
against all visible religions as consequently carnal, the true being invisible
and spiritual. Not a solitary apostle ever preached in a church edifice, the
Jews and pagans throughout the world making a great pomp and show
with fine buildings. One hundred and fifty years rolled away before the
Christians erected a house of worship. I sometimes feel that they made a
mistake in ever building a house, and localizing the worship of God.
Solomon’s temple signified the sanctified heart. Jesus certifies that neither
at Jerusalem nor in Samaria is the true worship, but in the humble,
sanctified heart. The first trend into apostasy and idolatry is always
through a materialistic religion. Christendom is this day flooded with the
idolatry of materialism, spirituality being more and more superseded by
materiality, as the Churches, like Judaism and Romanism, go deeper into
apostasy. All the paganistic Churches of the present day, with a thousand
millions of souls, are the apostasy of the patriarchal dispensation; Jews
and Mohammedans, two hundred and fifty millions; of the modern Roman
Catholics two hundred and sixty millions; while one hundred and fifty
millions of Protestants are following them at racehorse speed on the
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downward way to idolatry and diabolism. They all traveled the same way,
originally deflecting from a purely spiritual and invisible into material and
visible forms, ceremonies, temples, shrines, musical instruments, etc.
19. “Not holding the head.” Here the prophetic eye of Paul sees a great
man at the head of the Church, leading the people in the pompous rites and
ceremonies of a visible worship, with fine house, splendid choir, pipe-
organ, and Official Board, and utterly destitute of salvation. “Not holding
the head;” i.e., has no connection with Christ, and utterly ignorant of his
saving power. Ecclesiastical leaders on this line are too many to be
counted. Their name is legion. O how the present age is flooded with the
fulfillment of these wonderful latter-day prophecies, which flashed
continually from Paul’s inspired pen! How deplorable to see myriads of
preachers blindly and ignorantly fulfilling these prophecies! “From which
the whole body, through joints and ligaments supplied and cemented
together, increaseth the increase of God.” Here we have a beautiful
affirmation of the universal oneness of the Lord’s Church. There is no
harmony in Satan’s kingdom. The miseries of the damned are constantly
augmented and awfully intensified by the universal disharmony,
perturbation, and bitter conflicts in hell. It is equally true on earth; war,
bloodshed, strife, and disharmony universally characterize the kingdom of
Satan. The world is belted with sectarian Churches, rivaling each other in
visible pomp and pageantry, and material power and aggrandizement, amid
universal rivalry, competition, and disharmony; while the Church of God
is an invisible spiritual entity, consisting of blood-washed souls dispersed
in all the earth and millions in heaven, all not only perfectly harmonious
but identical in spirit, each individual identified with Christ as the branch
in the vine, and all receiving the same life-blood flowing out from the heart
of Jesus. Union there can never be, unless that we be one in Jesus,—one as
he is one in God, in spirit, and in disposition. This the Holy Scriptures
teach. It is plain without an exposition.
20. “If you are dead along with Christ from the institutions of the world,
why are you dogmatized as living in the world?” There is no reference here
to Church ordinances, as you might conclude from E.V., but to human
institutions indiscriminately and independently of Divine authority. So
fast as Churches lose the Holy Spirit and backslide, they always depart
from New Testament simplicity, and go off into human institutions, laying
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heavy burdens on the people, and depending on their own works instead
of the Holy Ghost. Jesus came to break all of these yokes off our necks,
and make us free as angels. For this he died, nailing all human creeds,
institutions, and authorities to the cross. How inconsistent for people
whom God has made free, to still live encumbered by these human
burdens! If you are a Christian, you have come out of the world. Then,
why do you live like the people of the world, still wearing the yokes of
worldly people? How few people, who claim to be the Lord’s, really
enjoy the glorious freedom which Jesus purchased on the cross?
21. “Touch not, taste not, handle not.” What is here referred to under this
sweeping prohibition? Why, all human institutions, inventions, customs,
and laws, laying on you a thousand heavy burdens. You have come out of
the world. Then how inconsistent that you be enslaved, contaminated, and
encumbered like people of the world!
22. “All which are for destruction by the use, according to the
commandments and teachings of men.” Every age has had its methods,
institutions, and customs, by which the people were burdened and
enslaved. They have all vanished away with the revolving centuries,
leaving not a trace. Our life in Christ is invisible, spiritual, and immortal. Is
it possible we can not rise above transitory things, and even here live the
life of God and eternity, remembering that all these human fashions,
customs, laws, and usages perish with the fleeting moment?
23. “Whatsoever things are indeed having a manifestation of wisdom in
will worship, humiliation, and deprivation of the body, are not of any value
against the indulgence of the flesh.” The heathen in all ages have tortured
the body to get rid of sin. The Roman Catholics have long preached the
doctrine of remedial suffering in this life and in purgatory. The
apostatizing Protestant Churches are fast going away in the track of their
predecessors, losing sight of the great Bible truth of justification and
sanctification by the free grace of God in Christ, received and appropriated
by faith alone. It takes a preacher on Sunday morning nearly as long to
announce his appointments as to preach his little sermonette. These
appointments are a concatenation of work for all of his members every
day, in cooperation with a great catalogue of human institutions, which
give no relief to the heart aching for purity, and to the immortal soul
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longing for victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. The week is
spent in toil and drudgery, and no victory for Jesus. A little filthy lucre is
gathered up, which is of no value, for our God is infinitely rich. John
Wesley was a great man for institutions, establishing the class meeting, for
the conversion of penitents; the holiness band, for the sanctification of
Christians; and the select societies, for the establishment of the sanctified;
all these being strictly the institutions of the Holy Ghost. Let us still have
them, instead of wearing ourselves out in “will worship;” i.e., worshipping
the will of preachers and leaders, and perhaps our own will, instead of
worshipping the sweet will of God. In a Western town I met a young man
from Kentucky, who, when a boy, had been converted in my meeting.
Fearing that he was on a downward trend spiritually, I requested his
pastor to look after him. “Yes, that I will; I must hunt up some work for
Joe to do.” The poor fellow was about to starve to death. He needed a
Benjamin’s mess, instead of a job. But that is the way the blind pastors are
doing. They starve and work their members to death. Paul says that “all
this is of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.” You may torture,
toil, pay your money, and suffer bodily privation till the judgment-day,
and find old Adam in you big as a rhinoceros, gripping you by the throat
and dragging you into hell. Salvation does not come in this way. It is not
by works, but by faith. Stay at the feet of Jesus till you get saved to the
uttermost, and filled with the Holy Ghost. Then go and work for God and
souls, with victory in your heart and heaven in your life.
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CHAPTER 3

ARGUMENT 13 — THE TRUE CHURCH INVISIBLE TILL OUR

LORD’S RETURN
1. “If therefore you have been resurrected with Christ, seek the things
above, where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God.
2. “Think about the things above, not things on the earth. For you are
dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
4. “When Christ, your life, may appear, then you shall also appear with
him in glory.”
While the Head walked the earth visible to mortal eyes, then the Church of
Christ was visible also. When the glorified Head flew up to heaven from
Mt. Olivet, thus becoming invisible, the body became invisible also, and
will so remain till our descending King shall ride down on the throne of his
glory, and call his saints to meet him in the air. Materialistic religion in all
ages has been quarreling over the identity of the Church of Christ. I was
reared in a country where ignorance abounded in pulpit and pew, and
sectarian war was the order of the day. If an insinuation was cast against
his creed, the spunky pastor announced a time for a doctrinal sermon. We
all went and enjoyed two solid hours on his creed. No time for the Bible
that day. Meanwhile his necessary entrenchment on his neighbor’s creed
arouses him to the defense. And so the creedistic war is renewed on all
sides, every pastor laboring assiduously amid perspiration and hoarseness
to prove that his Church is the genuine apostolical succession, to the
exclusion of all others, simultaneously exhorting the people to teach’ the
heresies, and come and join the bona fide Church of Christ. I, with all the
balance, preachers included, was at that time utterly ignorant that each
champion, by his stalwart effort, was actually proving the very opposite
of his enterprise; i.e., confirming to all intelligent Bible readers that his
visible organization is not the Church of Christ, and that his clamorous,
excited people, so enthusiastically vociferating their claims to the true
apostolic succession, are not the Church of Christ, which is composed of
the people, who are “dead,” and their life “hid with Christ in God,” and
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will never be recognized by mortal eyes till Christ shall appear. Then his
true saints will enter into the transfigured glory of their descending Lord,
and fly up to meet him in the air. If you want to know whether you are a
member of the true Church of Christ, you must settle it on the route you
are traveling. Are you really dead? Is your pride dead? Is your lust dead?
Is your temper dead? Is your love of money dead? Are you really dead to
the world? If so, you are a full-fledged member of the gospel Church,
regardless of modes, rights, and cognomens.

ARGUMENT 14 — GOD’S METHOD WITH SIN,

EXTERMINATION
5. “Therefore kill your members which are upon the earth, fornication,
uncleanness, passion, covetousness, which is idolatry.” Mortify, E.V.—
which theologians have endeavored to construe, gradualistic—is nekrosate,
from nekros, a corpse. Hence, the word here used by the Holy Ghost is
the strongest possible expression for “kill.” It literally means “kill
instantaneously,” because the Greek verb is in the aorist tense, which
means a sudden momentary action. God, in his providence, put that
instantaneous tense in the Greek language (which is not used in English), to
reveal to the world his wonderful work in the destruction of sin and the
salvation of the soul. Here we are commanded to kill the evil surviving in
our hearts suddenly as you could fire a revolver. Can I thus instantly slay
the man of sin in my own heart The Bible is pre-eminent for common
sense. Charles Wesley says, “How can I cleanse my hands or my heart but
by believing Thee. O Lord!” These variations in phraseology and attitude
wonderfully relieve the Bible of monotony. Here we have especial
prominence given to human agency. While it is impossible for me to kill
old Adam in my heart, either suddenly or gradually, I can, in the twinkling
of an eye, turn him over to omnipotent Adam the Second, who, pursuant
to my faith, will kill him before I can open my eye to see him fall. So the
way you kill all the evil in your heart is simply to trust for it.
7. “In which you also at one time walked about when you lived in them.”
This verse shows that Paul is not commanding sinners to “kill” all the evil
tempers surviving in them, but Christians, as he here alludes to their
former lives when they once lived under the dominion of these evil
tempers. They are not there now. Their service to these evil tempers is a
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matter of the bygones. Yet they have them on hand, though in a subjugated
state, an everlasting annoyance till exterminated. Some holiness people
teach only the suppression, and not the extermination of sin. That is
simply the Bible standard of regeneration, while sanctification here, and in
hundreds of other plain passages, is sin’s extermination.
8. “Now you also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, evil speaking,
disgraceful talk out of your mouth.” The Greek here is the same aorist
tense, imperative mood, setting forth the instantaneous and utter removal
of these hereditary evils. Hence, it is simply another expression parallel
with verse five for the extermination and complete elimination of these evil
tempers.
9. “Lie not one to another, having put off the old man along with his habit;
10. “And having put on the new man, who is renewed in perfect knowledge,
according to the image of him who created him.” These verses speak of the
old man eliminated suddenly and completely, and the new man
instantaneously put on, involving the reception of the Divine image lost in
the fall. In this paragraph we have a beautiful variety of expression, all
fulminating instantaneous death to the man of sin, surviving in the heart of
the regenerate. While we have this variety of expression, in two instances
ordering us to kill and utterly remove the members of old Adam—i.e., our
evil tempers—in two other instances the man himself is specified. Of
course, these statements are substantially synonymous. When you kill all
the members, you kill the man, “et vice versa.” When old Adam dies, all is
over.

ARGUMENT 15 — BROTHERHOOD OF THE SAINTS

11. What a contrast the religion of Jesus, reaching its Briarean arms around
the world, gathering the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the Ethiopian, the Jew,
the Mohammedan, the Buddhist, the Brahmin, the Romanist, and all the
infinitely diversified Protestant sects into one universal brotherhood, filling
the globe with Christian philanthropy, flooding the nations with holy
benefactions, and making the plains resound and the mountains reverberate
the praises of God! How decisive the contrast with the poor selfish
sectarian religions filling the world with jargon, logomachy, and confusion!
God’s ways are always right and successful. You see this wonderful
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eleventh verse concludes the paragraph on sin’s extermination. All of the
sects let old Adam live. If they did not, then sectarian ecclesiasticisms
would collapse forever, and perfect love inundate them in a sea of glory.
The metropolitan pulpits must defend the man of sin, and make room for
him, or carnal power is at an end.
12. We are nominated in conversion, and elected in sanctification. Sin goes
out to make room for grace. Hence, following this wonderful paragraph on
sin’s extermination (verses 5-11) we have election and perfect love, and the
beautiful graces of goodness, humility, meekness, and long suffering,
constituting the substratum of perfect love’s gorgeous temple.
13. Delighting to forgive all wrongs. So you wish somebody would treat
you like a dog, so you will have a chance at the amiable blessing of
forgiveness. Two neighbors living on adjoining lots fell out, quarreled, and
fought, utterly stopping all comers and goers till the grass grew green over
the path. One of them happens at a glorious revival, gets a knockdown
conviction, rolls and cries at the mourner’s bench till two o’clock, and
passes gloriously into life. “I can not go to bed for thinking of my
neighbor; but must go to see him.” Arriving at four in the morning, he
knocks at the door. “Who is that?” “It is Bill Johnson.” “Go away, you
scoundrel, or I will kill you!” “But I want to tell you how I love you, and
how mean I have treated you. O, do please forgive me for treating you so
mean.” “Why, Bill, what is the matter with you?” “Glory to God! I got
religion tonight, and won’t you please forgive me?” The door is thrown
wide open. “O Bill, I have been a heap meaner to you than you have to
me. If they get religion after that sort, I must go to that meeting, too; for I
am the meanest man in the world.” So he goes, gets gloriously converted,
and they live like David and Jonathan.
14. “In all of these things, Divine love, which is the bond of perfection.”
The crucifixion of old Adam is negative sanctification. Then perfect love
fills the vacuum, and inundates the soul, making your life a constant
sunshine, and keeping old Adam out forever; for he can only live in the
jungles of depravity, all of which have been transformed into fruitfulness
and added to Immanuel’s lands.
15. In justification you have peace with God, but in sanctification the
peace of God. Here it says “the peace of Christ.” Christ never had the
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peace of pardon, as he never had any sins to be pardoned. But he always
had the peace of purity. as he always had a pure heart. Hence, you must
get sanctified wholly, if you would have the peace of Christ; i.e., the peace
of God. You see this follows that paragraph on sin’s extermination. If you
will quit believing human creeds, written and oral, and believe the Bible,
giving all your sins and all your doubts to the devil, where they belong,
you learn the truth of sin’s destruction. So long as you believe unsanctified
preachers, who seek to bring the standard down to their level, you will
never enjoy the unutterably sweet experience of entire sanctification, as
your attainment will never rise above your faith; but, glory to God it will
come up to it.
16. “Let the Word of Christ dwell abundantly in your hearts, in all wisdom
teaching and admonishing one another.” O what a blessing to us and to
others to have the Word of Christ dwelling richly in us! It is our duty to be
well posted in the Word of God, and freely give others the full benefit of
our knowledge, not only teaching one another, but admonishing either the
other, freely correcting the faults we see in one another in perfect love,
enlightened by the Holy Ghost in the fear of God. O what a blessing God
will thus make us to one another! Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs; what a
contrast this with the old pipe-organ, the senseless preludes, interludes,
and postludes, with the jargon of Satan’s choir squealing out an operatic
song! God, help us to get back to the New Testament!
17. We are to do “everything in the name of the of Jesus.” Can you follow
the senseless, extravagant fashions, wear jewelry, put on needless
ornamentation in His name? Can you attend the theater and horserace in
His name, taking him with you? Can you prevail on him to go with you to
sociables, card parties, and festivals?

ARGUMENT 16 — DOMESTIC GOVERNMENT

18. “Wives, submit to your husbands, as it becometh you in the Lord.” Out
of God’s will, you are not to obey; but take a thrashing, if he gives it, for
Jesus’ sake.
The whole problem of family government is to be in the Lord. When the
commandment is out of harmony with the Word, Spirit, and providence of
God, you are not to obey, but meekly suffer abuse and even flagellation for
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Christ’s sake, esteeming it a great blessing to endure contumely, insult, and
persecution in Jesus.’ name.
19. “Ye husbands, love your wives with Divine love, and be not bitter
toward them.” No sinner can obey this commandment. Hence, God
requires every man to get religion before he takes a wife. It is the privilege
of every sinner to receive a wife; but God’s order is to get converted first,
as no man can love his wife with Divine love until the Holy Ghost pours it
out in his heart. Hence, all domestic trouble arises from the deficiency of
grace in the heart.
20. “Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing in
the Lord.” Here we see that filial obedience, like that of the wife, is to be in
the Lord. If your parents order you to commit sin, disobedience, for
Christ’s sake, becomes your duty, never resisting, but patiently suffering
for Christ’s sake.
21. “Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, lest they may be
discouraged.” Your little children have inherited evil tempers from you,
which are little rattlesnakes in them, feeding and thriving on fret, humor,
teasing, and all sorts of provocation. So be cheerful and kind, yet positive
and firm with your little ones, doing nothing to fret, worry, or arouse their
evil tempers. Parents vainly think they can castigate the evil tempers out
of their children. It is a great mistake; they will only feed them, and
develop a rapid growth. The true plan is by cheerfulness, love, kindness,
and firmness to avoid everything that would “provoke them to wrath,” and
thus bear with them patiently till Jesus comes along with the sword of the
Spirit, and cuts off every snake-head. When they get sanctified wholly,
they will have no evil tempers to provoke.
22. “Slaves, obey your masters according to the flesh in all things, not with
eye service as men pleasers, but in purity of heart fearing the Lord.” This
beautiful law of perfect love is to establish mutual brotherhood, even
between the master and slave; the former with his eye on the great white
throne where his Master sits; and the latter with his eye on Jesus,
oblivious of his servitude to an earthly master, but delighted with his most
servile and menial duties, which he cheerfully and patiently performs for
Christ’s sake, transported with rapture night and day, dreaming that he
serves the Lord alone. In this way many a servant wins souls for his
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Master, to shine like stars in his crown through all eternity. Years ago, in
time of slavery, an old Southern bishop related an incident in a Kentucky
Conference, which I here subjoin illustratively:
A very wealthy Southern planter, Owning several hundred slaves, and, of
course, by his money power ruling the Church of which he was a member,
was so fond of his pastor’s company, that he carried him about with him
to fashionable watering-places and other pleasure resorts, cheerfully
pouring out his money, living like kings, delighted with the funny jokes
and entertaining conversation of the cultured clergyman, who thought he
was doing a land-office business in his pastorate, so perfectly satisfying
the man who held his circuit by the foretop. Eventually, that awful scourge
of the Southland takes hold of the millionaire. He burns as in a furnace,
despite all medical aid, which, far and wide. from the beginning has been
laid under contribution for the arrest of the destroyer and the recover of
the valuable man. A council is held early in the morning of the ninth day.
All hope having evanesced, the physicians mutually agree to notify him
that his end is nigh. The wife, awfully excited. orders a servant to run for
the preacher. The suffering husband countermands: “No, wife; don’t send
for him, for I don’t want to see him. While I lived in pleasure I enjoyed his
company; but now that I have to die, I don’t want to see him.” “Well,”
says the wife, “whom shall I send for?” “Call in Tom [he was the slave
who drove his carriage]; I have often heard him praying and shouting about
the barnyard. I do believe he has got the true religion.” In a moment Tom
tips his hat at the door. “Massa, what do you want?” “Tom, I have to die,
and I want the kind of religion you have got.” “Massa, you can have it; the
Lord has plenty of it.” “Pray for me, Tom.” Down on his knees goes the
sable Ethiopian, and O how he prays for his dear old master! It seems that
the roof will certainly fly off to let heaven drop down. Tom prays, and his
master prays. Tom exhorts and shouts, and, while the hours go by, the
throne of grace is terribly besieged. Before the sun goes down, the dying
man says, “Come here, Tom, and let me hug you; you are the prettiest
man I ever saw. Glory to God! I am not afraid to die!”
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CHAPTER 4

ARGUMENT 17 — TREATMENT OF THE WORLD

1,2. “Persevere in prayer, watching in the same with thanksgiving.”
Constancy in the spirit of prayer is an infallible fortification against all
surprises and sudden assaults of the enemy.
3,4. We do not pray enough. We should pray for the Lord’s true people,
pressing his war against Satan in all the earth, incessantly and
importunately.
5. “Walk about in wisdom toward outsiders, buying in the opportunity.
6. “Let your word be always in grace, seasoned with salt, to know how it
behooveth us to answer each one.” The salt in the ocean is the savor of the
physical world. It the oceanic waters were fresh, they would stagnate,
generate malaria in so vast quantities as to inundate the continents with
pestilential atmosphere, so fraught with malarial poison as to kill every
human being and every air-breathing animal on the face of the whole earth,
and literally depopulate the globe, speedily bringing an end to the world,
whitening all lands with the bones of dead animals, and turning the world
into a graveyard. O how powerful the metaphor, “Ye are the salt of the
earth!” From these statements of Paul and Jesus we see the wholesale
putrefaction of the spiritual world. Since the saints are the spiritual salt
and the hope of earth’s dying millions, we should do our best to salt as
many souls as possible,” “buying in the opportunity;” i.e., seizing every
fleeting moment to scatter the salt to the ends of the earth, not wasting it
in the mud, but bringing it in contact with never dying souls.
7-9. This letter, along with that to the Ephesians and Philemon, was
carried by Tychicus and Onesimus, who enjoyed the honor of visiting
those Churches, bearing the news from Paul, and comforting their hearts.
10. Aristarchus, Paul’s Asiatic comrade, sticks to him during his Roman
imprisonment, a faithful helper in his gospel work. Here Paul also
commends to them Mark, a nephew of Barnabas, exhorting them to receive
him all right when he comes to them. This is a confirmation that Paul’s
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controversy with Barnabas over Mark, when they started out on their
second great evangelistic tour among the Gentiles, the latter desiring to take
his nephew with them, and the former dissenting, because he had not
persevered with them to the end of the first tour, but gotten tired and
returned to Jerusalem, was purely for the glory of God, and in perfect
harmony with the sanctified experience. As here, we see Paul is all right
toward Mark, and highly recommending him to the Churches.
11. “Jesus called Justus.” Jesus being the Greek for Joshua, a familiar
patriarchal name among the Jews, was in common use till the days of our
Savior, when it was discontinued in view of its sanctity.

ARGUMENT 18 — EPAPHRAS DEFINES PERFECTION

12. “Epaphras, who is from you, salutes you.” Epaphras was one of Paul’s
juvenile evangelists, who had in his peregrination visited the Colossian
saints, and preached for them. He avails himself of this opportunity to
salute them through the pen of Paul’s amanuensis. “Slave of Jesus Christ.”
Doulos means slave, and oiketes, hired servant. They are both translated
servant in E. V., Doulos, slave, being invariably used for the apostles and
saints, who thus constantly subscribe themselves the slaves of God;
tacitly referring to the Old Testament institution, in which all went free at
jubilee, except those who preferred to abide as love slaves forever, who
must have their ears bored and be nailed to the doorpost. All sinners are
Satan’s slaves. All sanctified people are God’s love slaves, delighted in
perfect submission and joyful obedience for pure love alone; while the
unsanctified Christians are hired servants in the kingdom of God; e.g.,
preachers and others working for salary. The holiness evangelist blows the
jubilee trumpet, proclaiming a new departure. The slaves must either go
free; i.e., go back to the devil, who will allow them the full freedom of a
sinful life— i.e., they backslide under the preaching of entire sanctification,
because they reject the call of the Holy Ghost, their sanctifier—or they
must come up to the doorpost, have their ears bored, and abide with their
Master forever; i.e., old Adam must be nailed to the cross, bleed and die,
thus consummating the experience of entire sanctification, which makes
you God’s love slave for time and eternity; perfectly free from every care,
as the slave has not the slightest concern as to food, clothing, lodging,
medical attention when sick, nor anything else. All this and a thousand
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more interests, of which he has never dreamed, devolve on his master.
Hence, if the master is sufficiently able and appreciative, the slave is the
happiest being in the world. Glory to God! My Master owns the universe,
and loves me enough to die for me. Hence, I would rather be his slave than
the incumbent of Alexander’s throne.
“Always agonizing for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect, truly
having been fully carried away in all the will of God, and more so now than
ever.” It is a signal blessing to have a clear lexical definition given to the
great, salient words of God’s revealed will. Here it is our privilege, in the
ministry of Paul’s boy preacher, Epaphras, to have a straight, clear, and
infallible definition of that wonderful word, “perfection,” so climacteric in
the Scriptures, and utterly invisible in the plan of salvation. Now, what is
that definition, as the E.V. is deficient in this passage? “Truly having been
fully carried away in the whole will of God, and more so now than ever.”
What a wonderful, copious, glorious, beautiful, sublime, and charming
definition of Christian perfection! Be sure you verify it. The last clause of
this definition, “more so now than ever,” is a circumlocution to bring the
full meaning of the Greek idiom, expository of the perfect tense. This
tense is defined in your grammars as revealing an action complete in past
time, developing a state which continues down to the present. While this
definition appertains both to the Greek and English, in the latter the
emphasis is laid on the past, whereas in the former it is on the present.
This idiomatic truth peculiar to the Greek grammar, justifies and
authenticates the subjoined circumlocution, “Better now than ever.” Now,
I hope you will commit to memory, and never forget this inspired
definition of Christian perfection, “Truly having been fully carried away in
all the will of God, and more so now than ever.” This love-inspired
definition will personally fortify you against wreckage, simultaneously
making you a tower of strength in the leadership and establishment of
others. God help you to utilize this fortunate definition!
13,14. Luke, the amanuensis, along with Epaphras and others, sends
fraternal greetings. Demas is here catalogued with the prominent salutatory
saints; though sad to say he afterward backslid, and goes out under a cloud.
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15. Nymphas and other brethren in Laodicea and the Church in their house
(as the Christian in the apostolic age had no church edifice) also received
Christian greetings.
16. This verse enjoins the reading of this epistle in the Church of the
Laodiceans, which was near; also that the Loadicean epistle should be read
in the Church at Colosse. We are sorry the epistle of Paul to the
Laodiceans was lost. It may yet be found, as the explorations in the Bible
lands are this day moving vigorously. When I was at Jerusalem in 1895,
Dr. Bliss was excavating in Mt. Zion without the walls, down toward the
Valley of Hinnom. The great manuscript of Tischendorf, which I hold in
my hand, containing the whole New Testament, flooding the world with
light on the inspired text, lay hidden in the convent of St. Catharine, on
Mt. Sinai, until 1859. So it is not too late for the Laodicean epistle yet to
come to light.
17. “Say to Archippus: See to the ministry which you received in the Lord,
that you fill it.” Lord, send this admonition, with sledgehammer conviction,
to every one whom the Lord has commissioned to preach the living Word!
18. The feebleness of Paul’s eyes disqualified him for his own writing. So,
as in case of Luke’s Gospel, Acts of the Apostles, and the Pauline
epistles, he dictated them to Luke, his faithful companion and noble
amanuensis. But we see he gives his autograph with his own hand. After
Paul’s decapitation, Luke was hung on an olive-tree in Greece, thus, like
his apostolical comrades, receiving a martyr’s crown.
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APOLOGUE

The Blessed Holy Spirit, who gave to Paul this wonderful epistle, has
illuminated the foregoing expositions. Doubtless the reader has run on
many surprises perusing these pages, arising from the fact that portions of
this letter are very difficult to translate, and doubtless during the
intervening ages suffered much in the hands of transcribers. Again, this
letter is eminently prophetical. Looking down into the coming centuries,
the inspired eye of Paul saw the awful apostasy, with concomitant abuses
and perversions, and sounded the alarm which has been ringing down the
revolving ages.
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1 THESSALONIANS
PROLOGUE

While faithfully preaching in Asia, the land of his nativity, the cradle of the
human race, where Eden bloomed, Adam and Eve were created, and Satan
invaded, eclipsing the fair hope of the world with his black wing, Paul has
spent his life preaching the gospel, and now, transported with enthusiasm,
enjoying the wide open door of all Asia, an inexhaustible evangelistic field,
in a nightly vision looks far away over the great Aegean Sea, rolling
between Asia and Europe. He sees a son of Japheth, the progenitor of the
white races, standing on a lofty promontory, overlooking the Grecian
Archipelago, and hears him shout, “Come over into Macedonia, and help
us.” The call is decisive, and the “Holy Ghost forbids him to preach in
Asia.” Therefore, accompanied by Luke, Timothy, and Silas, the heroic
Asiatic quarto embark for Europe, landing on the Macedonian shore.
Philippi, the Roman capital, is their first field of labor, finding an open
door in the mission conducted by the daughters of Jerusalem on the bank
of the Stryman. The roaring mob, the condemnation of the magistrates, the
merciless thrashing, and the cruel old jail, would have upset the faith of
many a modern evangelist, and precipitated the conclusion, “I was
mistaken in the call to this place.” But not so with Paul and Silas, who
hold a hallelujah prayer-meeting, stretched out flat on their bleeding backs,
on the cold stone floor of the stenchy old dungeon, till the midnight
earthquake answers their prayer, and the converted jailer charges and
jumps like a racehorse over the house, upsetting chairs and smashing
furniture. From Philippi they travel south to Thessalonica, where God
wonderfully blesses their labors, giving them a sweeping revival, till they
are compelled to retreat from their persecutors, who have come on their
track from Philippi. Now they continue their journey toward the tropical
sun, arriving at Berea, where they find a synagogue of unusually pious
Jews and proselytes, assiduous, faithful, and honest students of God’s
Word, who gladly received the apostles, and diligently searched the
Scriptures to see “if these things are so.” Their persecutors follow them
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from Thessalonica, and super-induce a premature departure from Berea.
Sending hack Timothy and Silas to preach in Macedonia, Paul,
accompanied by Luke, continues to travel southwardly, arriving at Athens,
the world’s literary emporium, the home of sages, philosophers, poets,
orators, and artisans. When I was there in 1895, I climbed Mars’ Hill, and
stood on the Areopagus, where Paul preached to the most learned audience
the world had ever seen, opening his discourse, “I perceive that in all
things you are very religious [not as in E.V., ‘too superstitious.’] Passing
through and observing your temples and shrines, I observed one erected to
the ‘Unknown God;’ whom you ignorantly worship, I now declare unto
you.” Athens was full of the most magnificent and costly marble temples
erected to their gods. The Temple of Jupiter Olympus, one of the Seven
Wonders of the World, still stands, the admiration of every traveler. The
marble Temple of Minerva on the Acropolis, that of Theseus and others,
stand this day. Paul very adroitly availed himself of the temple they had
erected to the “Unknown God,” to preach him to them as revealed in the
Bible and experienced in his heart. At Athens, however, his work was a
failure, receiving no converts, but Dionysius and Damaris. Why? Too
much learning at Athens. Learning is a citadel of power. When in the bands
of Satan, it is difficult to overcome. It is easier to convert a hundred
illiterate, ignorant men than a single infidel philosopher. The Churches are
making a mistake in educating the heathen before they get them converted.
The holiness people in all heathen lands go for conversion first,
sanctification quickly following, and education afterward. Terrible
maladministration prevails along this line in the Christian colleges of
America and Europe. They all ought to do as at Asbury College, at
Wilmore, Kentucky; press them right into a sky-blue conversion, and then
gallop them into a red-hot sanctification, thus getting so much fire on them
that they burn them either out or in. It is a bad business to educate people
for the devil, as we only augment their torments in hell. If people are going
to make their bed in hell, infinitely better give them no education. In the
great tribulation now hastening, the proud, smart, educated infidels now
ruling State and Church, and too cultured and egotistical to humble
themselves at the feet of Jesus and get saved, will all evanesce, leaving the
illiterate millions appreciative subjects of the millennial gospel. Paul and
Luke continue their journey toward the south, eighty miles to the great
city of Corinth, the Paris of the ancient world, arriving in the spring of A.
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D. 52, and staying till the fall of 54, favoring that wicked, idolatrous city
with an eighteen months’ protracted-meeting, signally crowned with the
blessing of God, and resulting in the largest Church of the Pauline ministry,
and most wonderfully endued with the extraordinary gifts of the Holy
Ghost. At Corinth Paul writes both of the Thessalonian letters within six
months after his arrival.
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CHAPTER 1

1. “To the Church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ.” How plain, explicit, and unmistakable is the New
Testament! And what a contrast with the Churchism of the present day, in
which we find dancers, card-players, theatergoers, horserace-goers, circus-
goers, extortioners, swindlers, whisky-drinkers, and other sins too dark to
mention! Common sense teaches the most stupid Bible-reader that none of
these characters can possibly be members of God’s Church, the Ecclesia,
who, responsive to the call of the Holy Ghost, have come out of the
world, and separated themselves unto God. Here we see that all the
members of the Thessalonian Church are “in God the Father and Jesus
Christ.” Nothing but the genuine regeneration of the Holy Ghost can put
the soul “in God the Father and Jesus Christ.” Yet we have preachers who
stultify themselves by the assumption that these Thessalonians were not
converted (in order to get rid of the second work of grace). O that they
could only salute their own Churches “in God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ!”

ARGUMENT 1 — THESSALONIAN CONVERSION

2,3. “Incessantly remembering your work of faith and labor of love.” All
who have faith and love are Christians, these two fundamental graces
constituting the beautiful globe of the new creation, Faith the human, and
Love the Divine hemisphere. Soul-saving work is the legitimate and normal
fruit of a genuine faith; so is love demonstrated by evangelistic labor These
people proved their faith and love by their works.
4. “Knowing, brethren, beloved of God, your election.” We are repeatedly
informed in the Scripture that our election is through “sanctification of the
Spirit.” In conversion we become candidates for heaven; in sanctification,
we are elected. Though these people had not all been sanctified, God seeing
it in the future recognizes it.
5. “Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but even in dynamite and
in the Holy Ghost and in much full assurance.” You see from these
inspired statements that their conversion was no modern bogus, but was
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like a sunburst from the throne of God. It is utterly impossible for a candid
mind to call in question the genuineness of their spiritual birth.
6. “Receiving the Word in much tribulation with joy of the Holy Ghost.” No
sinner has the joy of the Holy Ghost, but he has the sorrow and
condemnation of conviction till he passes from death to life.
7. “So that you are an example to all those who believe in Macedonia and
Achaia.” Here we see Paul holds them up as paragon saints for the
exemplification of all others.
8. “For from you the Word of the Lord has roared out, not only in
Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith, which is toward God,
has gone forth.” Here we see that they were not only themselves saved,
but efficient and enthusiastic missionaries, scouring all the surrounding
country, and preaching with stentorian voices. Good Lord, give us
everywhere the Thessalonian type of conversion!
8. The Thessalonian saints are bold missionaries, proclaiming the gospel in
Macedonia and Achaia with stentorian voices. They were none of your
dumb professors.
9. …We find Paul, on his first visit to Thessalonica, rendered the second
coming of Christ exceedingly prominent. The Christhood, in which his first
coming to suffer and die, and his second coming to conquer and to reign,
are the great salient points, constituted the burden of apostolic preaching.
So it is today. When we cease to preach Christ, we would better travel.
“To await his Son from the heavens, whom he raised from the dead,
delivering us from the wrath to come.” Christ is our great Deliverer, over
all and in all.
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CHAPTER 2

1,2. Despite their cruel treatment in Philippi, and the hot and bloody
pursuit of their enemies to Thessalonica, they were bold as lions, exposing
the futility of the heathen gods, and the impertinency of the defunct
Judaism; they fearlessly hold Jesus Christ as the only Savior of a lost
world, the Holy Ghost attesting the truth of their testimony.

ARGUMENT 2 — PAULINE MINISTRY

3,4. “Not pleasing men, but God, who proveth our hearts.” A man-pleasing
gospel is Satan’s delusion. A preacher in a great metropolis said: “If we
preach the Bible as it is, not one of us can hold our pulpit.” The whole
country is cursed with a diluted, man-pleasing gospel.
5,6. “Not in pretext of covetousness, seeking glory from men.” “God is our
witness.” Here Paul calls God to witness that money wielded no influence
in the ministry of him and his comrades.
7-9. While they had a right to temporal support, they supplemented their
income with manual labor. We must be true to the New Testament, and
faithfully preach the Word, regardless of temporal support.
10. “You and God are witnesses, how holily, righteously, and blamelessly
we were among you!” Here Paul, in behalf of himself and comrades, boldly
professes sanctification. Holily, the literal translation of the Greek, means
in a holy manner. The adverb includes the adjective, and could be affirmed
of none but holy people.
13. …”As it truly is the Word of God, who worketh in them that believe.”
This affirms a wonderful truth. When you believe convicting truth, God
works conviction in you. When you believe converting truth, God works
conversion in you. When you believe sanctifying truth, God works
sanctification in you. Faith is the hand by which you receive everything
from God. Your faith is the measuring-line of your experience. Faith is the
human side of the plan of salvation. Silently and imperceptibly to mortal
eyes, the Holy Ghost works in you according to your faith. Not only does
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he work in you according to your faith, but he actually inspires and
augments your faith. This is the secret of wonderful experiences.

ARGUMENT 3 — SIN ALWAYS FIGHTS

14-16. Sin, like its symbol, the rattlesnake, always fights for its life. The
Christians in Palestine were cruelly persecuted by the Jews. The
Thessalonian Gentiles were most malignantly persecuted by the Gentile
tribes. Graceless always fight the grace of God, that seeks to save them.
The Gentiles were the apostate Patriarchal Church; the Jews, the fallen
Mosaic Church, having retrogressed into formality and hypocrisy. So the
devil had them both, and they were ready to unite against God. Fallen
Churchism has always been Satan’s organized opposition. “But wrath
cometh on them in the extreme.” Paul’s prophetic eye saw the awful storm
of Roman castigation coming on the Jews. Within a score of years from
this writing, the army of Titus laid siege to Jerusalem. Josephus says that
a sword suspended high in the air hung over Jerusalem a whole year
preceding her destruction. The horrors of the siege beggar all description. A
solid million perished by sword, pestilence, and famine, and a million were
sold into slavery; while the scathed and peeled remnant were driven to the
ends of the earth, prohibited, on pain of death, to return to the home of
their race and the land of their love. The Roman emperors hated the
religion, both of Jews and Christians. Therefore they did their utmost to
obliterate the very memory of Jerusalem, the Emperor Adrian even
dropping the name, and founding a Roman colony on the site under the
name of Elia Capitolina. It retained this name two hundred years, till the
conversion of Constantine, A.D. 325, when he and his royal mother,
Queen Helena, went to Palestine, rebuilt Jerusalem, restoring the name
after an interregnum of two hundred years. Still the curse of expatriation is
on the Jews. Methinks I see the day dawning on the wandering children of
Abraham. Certainly the signs of the times portend the speedy fulfillment
of the wonderful latter-day prophecies in reference to the hope of Israel.
Terrible has been their retribution. Correspondingly glorious will be their
redemption when they shall come from their wanderings in the ends of the
earth, and again take their place at the front of the world, to fall and
wander no more.
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17. We see here Paul’s “hour” indefinitely denoted simply a short period
of time.
18. Satan is constantly maneuvering, especially through human
instrumentality, to hinder God’s saints in their soul-saving enterprises.
Blessed consolation amid all, God is infinitely stronger than the devil, and
actually his assaults are a blessing to his true people.
19. The saints are Paul’s hope, joy, and crown, in presence of the Lord
Jesus Christ at his coming. In this and all other epistles, Paul keeps the
second coming of the Lord constantly before the people, thus inspiring
them to get ready. Parousia, the Greek translated coming, is from para,
along with, and ousa, being. Hence, it means to come and stay, perfectly
harmonizing with the pre-millennial view of his glorious reign on the earth
after his coming. It literally means his presence.
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CHAPTER 3

1-4. Paul at Athens found a hard crowd; i.e., the great philosophers of the
earth, so fortified by human learning that he could not move them to
repentance. No wonder he reduced his evangelistic force, sending Timothy
and Silas back to help the Thessalonians, lest they be shaken by the bitter
persecution everywhere confronting them.
5. Here we see Paul feared they would apostatize, and be lost. In that case
his labor was in vain.
6,7. Much were they cheered by the favorable report which Timothy and
Silas brought to Corinth relative to their faith and love, the essential graces
of the Christian, the former the human side, and the latter the Divine.
8. “Now we live if you stand in the Lord;” et vice versa, we die if you fall; a
very delicate hyperbolic expression of the apostle’s exceeding tender love
for them.
9. Paul’s gratitude to God on the reception of Timothy’s cheering report
knows no bounds.

ARGUMENT 4 — REGENERATION NOT FULL SALVATION

10. “Night and day exceedingly desiring to see your face, and to perfect the
deficiencies of your faith.” This letter sweeps the last possible vestige of
the Zinzendorfian heresy forever from the field. Here we have a case of
conversion beggaring all possible cavil, clear, demonstrative, giving the joy
of the Holy Ghost and the fruits of the Spirit, even making them efficient
missionaries and “examples to all the saints in Macedonia and Achaia.” Yet
this epistle is written to “perfect the deficiencies of their faith.” Their faith
for justification was certainly all right; but they did not have faith for
sanctification. This was the deficiency no candid reader can deny that they
were truly born from above. They were not sinners. Yet they did not
enjoy full salvation. Their faith was not perfect. If so, their salvation
would have been perfect, for Jesus says it is according to your faith. I have
heard preachers stoutly contend that regeneration is full salvation. You see
they differ from Paul. This, of itself, is an irrefutable argument for the
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sanctification of the ministry. Wholly sanctified people are gloriously
saved from creedism, and even their own opinions. They want nothing but
the truth. they are dead to all isms and schisms, sects, creeds, theologies,
denominations, and organizations. We have to get there, in order to be
taught by the Holy Ghost. God help you and me to be utterly dead to
every authority but the Bible! Your creed will not be mentioned in the
judgment-day. You must face the great white Throne, and be judged by the
Bible alone.

ARGUMENT 5 — SANCTIFICATION GOD’S WILL

11-13. “To establish your hearts blameless in holiness before God even
our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.
Amen.” Paul is no low-standard preacher. He here holds high the banner of
entire sanctification, inspired by the coming of the Lord with all his saints.
Benjamin Abbott, than whom the world has not seen a more powerful
preacher since the apostolic age, was a terrible reprobate, fist-fighter,
chicken-fighter, blasphemer, etc., till he had passed his fortieth year.
Bishop Asbury’s pioneer circuit-rider produced such a popular sensation
in Maryland as to stir the people throughout the whole country, as they
had never heard anything but dead preaching. Through sheer curiosity,
Abbott rides twelve miles to hear him; finds the house and the yard full of
spellbound auditors, the preacher greatly excited, voice roaring, and tears
flowing, and the people crying all around him. It was an utter novelty to
Mr. Abbott, as he had never before attended a Holy Ghost meeting.
Conviction takes hold of him like a nightmare, he thought he was sick,
went home, and told his wife that he was going to die. Next morning he
goes out to mow his meadow; but his body is so weak he can hardly stand
on his feet, much less wield the scythe. Meanwhile a soliloquy in his own
breast: “Why am I torturing my body to mow this meadow when I will be
dead and in hell before night?” At this he drops his scythe, and makes for
the woods, where he wallows in awful agony, thinking he is dying. As the
sun is going down, it seems that the bottom of heaven drops out, filling
and flooding him with an unearthly rapture. He goes home shouting aloud,
and tells his wife God has wonderfully saved his soul. She was a member
of the Church, and thought she was a Christian. So she is much encouraged
by her husband’s conversion, and the next morning sends him to see her
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pastor, that he might tell him his experience, and make arrangements to join
the Church. The pastor receives him gladly, and, having listened patiently
to his recital of his wonderful experience, groans and sighs, and tells him
that he is under a powerful delusion of the devil. This, to Mr. Abbott, was
like a thunderbolt from a cloudless sky, filling him with gloom bordering on
utter despair. As he goes home almost dead with trouble, an inward voice
says, “Go out in the woods and ask God about it.” So again, in the lonely
forest, he falls prostrate, and turns the vexed problem over to God. Again
the heavens open, and a cataract pours on him even greater than that of the
preceding day. He goes home shouting aloud, and tells his wife that her
preacher has not a bit of religion. When Bishop Asbury’s circuit-rider
comes around again, having heard of Mr. Abbott’s wonderful conversion,
he visits him at his home, and hears him relate his Pauline experience. Then
he says: “Brother, your conversion is all right, blessed and glorious; but
God has for you a vastly greater and grander experience —entire
sanctification.” This astonished Mr. Abbott unutterably, as he thought he
had all he could possibly receive. The preacher proceeds to tell him about
sanctification, and explain it to him; meanwhile his heart begins to reach
out after it. So he says, “Well, I want this, too.” Pursuant to the directions
of the circuit-rider, they fall on their knees, and proceed to pray for his
sanctification. An hour has flown; their importunate prayers take hold of
the Arm that shakes the world. Abbott falls prostrate on the floor, unable
to move hand or foot. Satan tells him he is dying. He cries out, “O God,
remove thy hand, or I die!” The physical disability passes off, his strength
returns, and he gets up. Still the conversation is on sanctification, and he
says, “I want it, and must have it.” The preacher says: “You were right at
it awhile ago, and would have received it, if you had not asked God to
remove his hand. Now, if you want it, you must pray through, letting God
have his way.” Then he says, “I will have it, or die.” Again they get on
their knees to pray for his sanctification. Erelong the agony supervenes,
the power comes, he falls prostrate, unable to move hand or foot. But
profiting by his former mistake, this time he sticks to the track, lying
prostrate. After about two hours, he rises and testifies, “that he knows
God has sanctified him.” I relate this wonderful experience of this noted
pioneer Methodist preacher, as a striking corroboration of the Pauline
ministry in the Thessalonian Church. After a conversion sky-blue,
glorious, and exceedingly fruitful, not only of spiritual joy, hut efficient
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evangelistic work, Paul notifies them that their faith is deficient, and that
they must be blameless in holiness as a qualification to meet their “coming
Lord with all his saints.”
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CHAPTER 4

The reader doubtless knows that Paul and the Holy Ghost never put the
chapter and verse divisions in the Bible. It was done about three centuries
ago, by people so ignorant of the Scriptures that they have exceedingly
marred the revelation by frequently putting the divisions in the wrong
places. The paragraphs made by the inspired writers, and so helpful to
Bible students, have long since disappeared in the translations. If the Lord
lets me live to complete the Commentary (four more volumes after this), I
expect to translate the New Testament, restoring the paragraphs as I have
them in the Sinaitic manuscript, from which I write these pages. This
wonderful paragraph on sanctification begins with the eleventh verse of the
third chapter, and runs through the eighth verse of the fourth chapter, the
chapter division importunately breaking it in two. You must also
remember there are postscripts in the original, all having been added at a
subsequent date by an uninspired hand, and full of errors. So learn, once
for all, never to give any attention to the postscripts in E.V. 1. Finally,
therefore, brethren, we entreat and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as
you received from us how it behooveth you to walk about and please God
as you do also walk about, in order that you may abound more and more.”
The clause, “as you do also walk,” is not in E.V. It abundantly and
triumphantly sweeps away the last possible refuge of the Zinzendorfian
heresy; i.e., the allegation that, admitting the conversion of the
Thessalonians under Paul’s ministry, that they were back-slidden at the
time of this writing, and that the sanctification urged on them by the
apostle is but their reclamation. This clause, “as you do also walk” with
God, which does not occur in E.V., hut is restored in R.V., forever
obliterates the possibility of the conclusion that they are in a back-slidden
state, as certainly backsliders do not walk with God.
2. “For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord
Jesus.” Commandment and promise are translations of the same Greek
word; hence, perfectly synonymous, the latter carrying with it all the force
of a commandment for its due appreciation, and the former involving the
promise of God to give you all needed grace in your faithful obedience to
all of his commandments.
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3. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.” “Even,” in E.V., is like
all other italicized words, an interpolation by the translators for
elucidation. But, unfortunately, these interpolations obscure, rather than
elucidate. God made the Bible right. When men undertake to help him out,
they always do bad business. Hence, in reading the Scriptures, you had
better skip the italicized words, as God never put them there. The reason
why the E.V. translators inserted “even,” an adverb of surprise in this
verse, was because they were not sanctified. Hence, in their experimental
ignorance, they regarded sanctification as a very extraordinary blessing,
only conferred on a saint in an age. But the Bible, here and elsewhere,
reveals it as the normal experience of God’s children indiscriminately, as a
matter of our Heavenly Father’s will. Therefore, we have only to establish
the heirship of regeneration, and claim it, in order to enter into the
possession and enjoyment of this precious and extraordinary experience.
Years ago I assisted a Methodist pastor in a Kentucky county-seat, the
Lord favoring us with a glorious revival, converting one hundred and
sanctifying about fifty. Walking out with the pastor to dine, in the joy and
triumph of his newly-sanctified experience, he related to me an item in the
history of his family. “My father was a well-to-do farmer, living in a
magnificent mansion on a splendid farm. During the tempestuous annals of
the Confederate war, he was suddenly and unexpectedly shot dead in the
courtyard. My mother, unaccustomed to finances and business intrigues,
almost crazy with trouble, was soon turned out of house and home by
some sharpers, who bought up my father’s little debts, made a run on the
farm, and captured it for a song. There were eight of us children, the eldest
only twelve, and myself, eight years old, when we were all turned
penniless out of house and home. Six awful years rolled away, spent in
rickety tenements, interpenetrated by the wintry winds and scorched by
the sultry summer sun, unrelieved by a solitary shade-tree; the starvation-
wolf ever and anon howling about the door. Frequently we had nothing hut
bread and water, and sometimes utterly destitute. My mother’s raven
locks had turned to hoary gray, while grieving incessantly she cried her
eyes away. One bright summer day, a life-long friend of my father and
mother rode up to our humble shanty. Dismounting and saluting us, he
said, ‘Mrs. Boyd, looking over the land county register, I find that your
home is willed to you and your heirs forever.’ ‘Why, surely you are
mistaken; that is too good to be true.’ ‘I know I am correct, for I made
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special investigation for your benefit.’ ‘If that is so, I authorize you, as my
agent, to go at once and bring suit for the recovery of our home, employing
the best lawyer for the prosecution. Great is the excitement in the court.
The false claimants, determined to hold the property, bring in a platoon of
big lawyers. The case is called. The presiding judge opens the land register,
and reads a plain warrantee deed to Mrs. Boyd and her heirs forever,
observing, ‘It is unnecessary to waste time, as there is no possible
defalcation; this land belongs to Mrs. Boyd and her heirs forever.’ Amid
the consternation of the defendants, Mrs. Boyd’s lawyer brings in a claim
of three thousand dollars for the six years back rent in her favor. So
mother, with us children, returns home with three thousand dollars in her
pocket, there to live in peace and prosperity.” God pity the millions of
unsanctified Christians living amid poverty and peril in the old howling
wilderness, ever and anon in full view of the green fields of Canaan, where
a rich farm, with comfortable mansion and everything heart can wish, is
already willed to them, and nothing to do but go over and take possession!
“That you abstain from fornication.” Every deflection from God is
spiritual fornication, for which sanctification is the only remedy. In the
sanctified experience we have no lovers but Jesus; the love of the world,
style, fashion, money, honor, emolument, aggrandizement, all dead and
gone.
4. “Let each one of you know how to possess his vessel in sanctification
and honor.” “Vessel” means yourself. Sanctification is the indispensable
qualification for self-government in perfect harmony with the law of God
6. “That no one overreach nor defraud his brother in a business
transaction, because the Lord is the avenger concerning all these things, as
indeed we before told you and now testify.” Entire sanctification puts an
end to all unfair dealing in business circles, making everybody perfectly
transparent and as vigilant of another’s interest as his own, and for safety
always taking the self-denial side of every doubtful case.
7. “For God has not called us unto uncleanness, but in sanctification.”
Here we see the Holy Ghost puts sanctification antithetical to
uncleanness. Hence, there is no such thing as spiritual purity without
sanctification. John Wesley well says justification saves us from evil
habits and sanctification from evil tempers. So long as there is any evil
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temper in you liable to rise on provocation, you are not ready for heaven;
because it might rise there, which is utterly incompatible with the heavenly
state. As the great work of probationary grace is to get us ready for
heaven, we must keep our eye incessantly on entire sanctification, which is
the Bible standard of fitness for glory, remembering that God is our
umpire, and we must all soon stand before him. He pronounces you
unclean till you are sanctified wholly; so take timely warning, and govern
yourself accordingly. Your preacher studies hard all the week to prepare a
sermon to comfort you on Sunday. He makes a great mistake. He ought to
preach to you the truth fearlessly of men and devils, till he gets you
sanctified wholly. Then the Holy Ghost will comfort you, because you are
ready for the judgment bar. God, in his great mercy, disturbs your comfort
and satisfaction till you seek and obtain the needed preparation for heaven.
We see from this verse that the gospel call is to sanctification. What a pity
that every pulpit is not in harmony with the Holy Ghost! It is pertinent
here to observe that holiness and sanctification in the New Testament are
precisely anonymous. both being translations of the same Greek word.
hagiasmos in the E.V. “holiness,” and in the R.V., sanctification.
8. “Therefore he that rejecteth, rejecteth not man but God, who indeed
giveth unto you his Holy Spirit.” This verse concludes this stalwart
paragraph on sanctification, smashing all possible controversy with the
irresistible Pauline sledgehammer logic. Having set forth sanctification as
the great indispensable sine qua non, leaving all without excuse, since it is
the will of God to all of his children without money and without price—
nothing to do but take it, the Holy Ghost always present, and freely giving
us all the help we need—he now thunders out the inevitable finale in the
bold declaration that the rejecter of this grace inevitably commits spiritual
suicide, sealing his doom world without end. Satan everywhere deludes
Church people with the idea that sanctification is simply a matter of their
own option; but the Bible in this very verse reveals that it is sanctification
or damnation; as the rejecter does not simply reject the man who preaches
it, “but God, who giveth unto you his Holy Spirit,” to sanctify you.
Hence, you see that the rejecter of sanctification actually rejects God, who
gives to all Christians his Holy Spirit to sanctify them. Could you uncap
hell, and see the lost millions who once cherished a fair hope of heaven, but
grieved the Holy Spirit. whom God gave to them to sanctify them—
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consequently the Heavenly Comforter retreated away. leaving them in The
impurity of carnal appetites and evil temper to fail into a backslider’s
hell—methinks you would make sanctification the great enterprise of your
life. O the imminent danger of grieving away the Holy Spirit, settling down
in hardness, darkness, and carnality, crossing the dead-line, and waking up
in hell! The Holy Spirit, like his symbol, the gentle and amiable dove, is
easily won and wooed, and equally easily grieved and alienated forever.
This was the trouble with the scribes (the pastors off the popular
Churches) and the Pharisees, the official members in the days of Christ.
Having taken Church loyalty for religion, they grieved away the Holy
Ghost till they were harder to save than the publicans and harlots. Their
name is legion this day in every land in Christendom. Their false standard
of religion has blinded their eyes to the great fact,
“that without sanctification, no one shall see the Lord.”
(Hebrews 12:14.)
Millions of poor, deluded Church members, led astray by blind preachers,
are this day rejecting sanctification, vainly thinking that they are rejecting
the holiness evangelist, blind to the fact that Paul here says, “He that
rejecteth, rejecteth not man but God, who indeed giveth unto you his Holy
Spirit.” Hence, there is no getting away from the conclusion, if you reject
sanctification, you reject God. Good Lord, have mercy on the deluded
multitudes, thus blinded by the devil through false leaders, and walking
into hell, vainly hugging the fond delusion that they are on their way to
heaven!

ARGUMENT 6 — UNIVERSAL PHILANTHROPY SUPERINDUCED

BY HOLINESS TO THE LORD
9. “…For truly you are taught of God to love one another with Divine
love.” The boasted philanthropy of the world is an empty bogus, founded
on sordid selfishness and clandestine carnality. This glorious uttermost
salvation is the only abettor of true, genuine, and disinterested
philanthropy. The Holy Ghost teaches all real Christians to love one
another, not with carnal and selfish, but Divine love. The Greek word in
this verse is philadelphia, the name of a beautiful Eastern metropolis.
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George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, preached entire sanctification in
England a hundred years before John Wesley. William Penn, the founder of
Pennsylvania, was his convert. He and his sanctified Quaker followers met
the Indians in council on the spot where Philadelphia now stands,
provoking their unutterable surprise by the absence of firearms, as the
savages had never before seen white men disencumbered of deadly
weapons. Penn quickly informs them that he and his followers carry no
arms, because they love everybody, and are not willing to hurt a solitary
human being on the face of the whole earth, as they are all members of
God’s universal brotherhood, as our Heavenly Father wants his children,
regardless of nationality, race, or color, to live together in peace. This love
talk of the sanctified Quaker melted the hearts of the bloodthirsty savages,
till they broke down in tears, and stipulated a treaty of peace with
Quakers, which they never broke, Penn selecting the ground on which they
sat for the founding of his settlement, calling it Philadelphia, the very
Greek word in this verse, then and there used designatively of the mutual
love of the Quaker and the Indian. In after years, while other Colonial
settlements were frequently depopulated by midnight conflagrations and
assassinations, well does history say, “Not a drop of Quaker blood was
ever shed by an Indian.” The Quakers were the sanctified people in the
Colonial history of America. O what a contrast with all their neighbors,
beleaguered and devastated with Indian wars, while the sanctified Quakers,
unarmed, lived in peace and prosperity! Nothing but holiness to the Lord
experienced in the heart and verified in the life, will ever girdle this world
of sin and sorrow in the Briarean arms of Christian philanthropy.
10-12. “In order that you may walk about circumspectly toward aliens, and
have need of nothing.” The eye of the world is on the Lord’s people.
Hence, it behooveth us to watch and pray and live irreproachable before
them, as the faithful custodians of truth and righteousness. Here Paul
exhorts us all to strive “to be quiet, to do our own work and labor with our
hands.” Beggarism is utterly out of harmony with God’s kingdom. David
says, “I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging
bread.” “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” is true of the body,
as well as the soul. Get saved to the uttermost; be true to God, and he will
take care of you, soul and body. If no one will give you wages, fall in with
a good man, and work gratuitously. I assure you, he will feed you. John
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Wesley says, “Never be unemployed, and never triflingly employed.”
Stephen Merritt, meeting a beggar on the streets of New York, just out of
eleven years servitude in the Sing Sing Penitentiary, poured on him such a
powerful exhortation to fly to Jesus and get saved, terrible conviction
seizing him, preacher and beggar, both manipulated by the Holy Ghost,
mutually forgot all about the solicited contribution, the beggar crying to
God for salvation onward he tramps the pavement, uncaring whither he
goes, receives into his soul such a heavenly flood as to make him leap and
run like a racehorse, shouting away the fugitive hours of the passing night
till day dawned. Then the sensation of hunger, after a three days’ fast,
again constraining him to resume his hitherto fruitless effort to get work,
observing a man open the door of his business house, he shouts after him,
“Do you not want to hire a hand?” “Where is your recommendation?” The
happy beggar, now honest, begins to confess, “I was eleven years in”
“That will do; if you have followed any business eleven years I will take
you in.” The man proves just the help he wants; now that he is well saved,
and fortunately his employer is a Christian, they move along together like
David and Jonathan, delighted either with the other. In due time he tells the
man that he had begun to tell him that he was eleven years in the
penitentiary; but he stopped him outright. “Yes,” says the man, “the Holy
Ghost managed that; for if I had known that you were right out of the
penitentiary, I would not have touched you with a forty-foot pole; now I
want you to stay with me eleven years.” So the true salvation puts an end
to all beggary. Give your heart to the Lord, and he will provide.

ARGUMENT 7 — THE RAPTURE

This wonderful argument opens with the thirteenth verse of the fourth
chapter, and closes with the eleventh verse of the fifth chapter,
unfortunately severed in twain in the middle by the insertion of the fifth
chapter. Of course, by this time you know that the divisions into chapters
and verses, and insertion of italicized words, and the postscripts, are all
postapostolic, and without authority.
13. “But we do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those
who are asleep, that you may not grieve as those having no hope.” The
sleep here is that of the body, as the immortal soul never sleeps. This is
confirmed by the allusion to the heathen, who have no doctrine of the
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resurrection to comfort them, burying their dead with no hope of ever
seeing them. It can not refer to the soul, because the heathen all teach the
soul’s immortality, but not that of the body, which is alone peculiar to
Christianity.
14. “If we believe that Jesus died and is risen, so also God will bring with
him those who sleep in Jesus.” Of course, the souls of the saints will
descend with Jesus in the rapture, and receive their risen bodies. But this
same word “sleep,” here occurs as in preceding verse, referring to the
body, as the souls of the saints do not sleep. This confirms the rapture, as
he must come for them, in order to bring them with him when he descends
on the throne of his glory.
15. “For I say this to you in the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive,
who remain till the coming of the Lord, may not go before them that are
asleep;” i.e., the buried saints will rise before we living saints shall be
translated. This still confirms the reference to the body, as our bodies will
be transfigured.
16. “The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the
voice of the archangel and the trump of God. and the dead in Christ shall
rise first.” The adverb, first, here has been misconstrued, contrastively
with the second resurrection, which is untrue. The simple fact revealed is,
that the sainted dead will rise before the living are translated.
17. “Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall be forever with the Lord.” It
does not state here that the Lord comes to the earth; but we, with all the
risen of the bridehood, “will be caught up to meet him in the air.” “Shout”
is keleusma, defined as the shout of a hunter to his dogs, a sea captain to
his sailors, and a general to his soldiers. Remember, the saints are sleeping
in the dust on all sides of the globe. Hence, it He were to come very near,
the mass of the earth would intervene between him and the saints on to
other side. Hence, the probability that he will call from a great distance in
the firmaments, thus obliterating the earth’s diameter, as they will
simultaneously rise from all parts of the earth’s surface. Every member of
the bridehood, living and dead, will hear that call, the latter rising promptly
and flying up into the firmament, and the former waiting a short time. The
rapture is the first great miracle in the revealed catalogue of latter-day
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wonders. This must take place preparatory to the descension of our Lord
on the throne of his millennial glory, and before the great Tribulation. The
prophecies have already been so fulfilled, that we need not be surprised at
any moment to hear the trumpet of our Savior roar from the skies,
summoning his saints to meet him in the air. Then the first resurrection
will take place, including the members of the bridehood; i.e., the sanctified.
(Romans 20:6). Modern theologians have obscured these Scriptures by
explaining the first resurrection as spiritual, and thus doing away with it
altogether. In that case, they are forced, by their logic, to do away with the
second resurrection, thus spiritualizing and utterly doing away with the
resurrection of the body. and plunging headlong into Swedenborgianism.
Nearly all of the heresies Originate either from spiritualizing the literal
Scriptures or literalizing the spiritual. Do not tinker with God’s Word, but
believe it as he gives it. The Bible teaches that the bodies of all will he
raised. The New Testament declares a special resurrection, “out from
among the dead.” (Philippians 3:11.) This was the beau ideal for which
Paul and his comrades were running, disencumbered of every burden, that
they might take no risk. The translation, which will be the glorious
privilege of all the sanctified who are living on the earth when he comes
and calls his Bride to “meet him in the air,” will simply consist in the
elimination of all ponderous matter out of our bodies, so we will not weigh
anything (as nothing but the weight of our bodies keeps us on the earth
now). This done, our bodies will rise, responsive to the impulses of our
spirits, and of course fly away to meet our Savior. When the trumpet
sounds, the glorified bodies of the rising saints all round the world will
flood the firmament; the splendor which eclipsed the mortal eyes of Peter,
James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration will illuminate the entire
firmament with a glory so bewildering, that we who are alive would be lost
in contemplation. In the midst of the unearthly glory, before we are aware,
we will find ourselves flying and commingling with the enraptured millions
of risen saints. We should not only have constant faith in justification and
sanctification, but for translation, as we know not what moment our Lord
will call. If we are sanctified wholly, we re ready for translation,
responsive to our faith like Enoch (Hebrews 11:5). The transfiguration of
the Holy Ghost is the climax of mediatorial restitution. Glory to God I am
looking for my Lord and the transfiguration.
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18. “So exhort one another in these words.” The Church has lost power
and glory unutterable by the delinquency of the pulpit on this
commandment. O how she needs this inspiring truth this day to raise her
out of worldliness and apostasy, to plunge beneath the cleansing fountain,
wash, and be clean, put on her white robes and get on her watchtowers,
waiting with glowing expectancy for the coming of her Lord!
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CHAPTER 5

1. “Concerning the periods and epochs you have no need that I write unto
you.”
2. “You know well that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night.”
Time is a parenthesis in eternity, interjected for the accommodation of the
mediatorial kingdom, and divided up into periods and epochs. We are living
in the sixth dispensation—i.e., that of the Holy Ghost; the Edenic,
Antediluvian, Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Messianic have come and gone in
their appointed times, each winding up with a signal revolutionary epoch.
These times and seasons—i.e., epochs and periods of revolution and
development—are ordered and determined by the sovereign and
discriminating wisdom of the Father only. Hence, since the inauguration of
the Holy Ghost dispensation on the day of Pentecost, the Son has been
sitting on the right hand of the Father, awaiting his time for his coronation
King of the nations, having been crowned King of saints at his ascension.
Meanwhile the Bride has been waiting in constant anticipation the return
of the Bridegroom. A thief always comes suddenly and unexpectedly to
the parties from whom he steals. As the coming of our Lord to the earth to
steal away his Bride is unknown, both to the Church and her Divine
Spouse, is known only to the Father, therefore it will be the greatest
surprise that ever fell on a slumbering world and an apostate Church.
3. This describes the terrible anguish and awful pall that shall come to the
godless millions of a fallen world and a slumbering Church, when awakened
by the trump of the archangel and the shout of the descending Christ,
calling all the members of his bridehood, living and dead, to meet him in the
air. The institutions of the old dispensation all focalized in the first advent
of Christ, like rivers flowing into the sea. That great and notable event was
the exchange station, where all changed cars for the glorious new departure
of the gospel dispensation. In a similar manner all the institutions of the
new dispensations focalize and have their fulfillment in the second coming
of Christ, when the gospel dispensation will wind up, and the glorious
kingdom usher in, Satan, the present king of the nations, having been
arrested, taken out of the world, and locked up in hell. (Revelation 20.)
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4. “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day may overtake you
as a thief.
5. “For all you are the sons of light and sons of the day; we are not of the
night nor of darkness.
6. “Therefore let us not sleep as the rest, but watch and be sober.” Sin is
the only thing that ever made the human soul drunk. Entire sanctification is
absolutely necessary to the complete sobriety of the soul. The smallest
amount of sin intoxicates you to the extent of its power. The two great
commandments prominent in the Pauline battle-cry are, “Watch, and be
sober;” i.e., be on the constant lookout for your coming King, and wholly
sanctified as a qualification to receive him. His coming as a thief in the right
is only applicable to the fallen world and slumbering Church, and not to
his true people, who are watching and waiting his arrival.
7. Spiritual slumber and intoxication are peculiar to spiritual night. When
the bright day of Eden passed under the eclipse of Satan’s black wing, the
dismal night of sin supervened upon the whole world, and will continue till
relieved by the glorious millennial day, whose auspicious dawn methinks I
see in the present holiness movement, gilding every land with the fair-
fingered Aurora of the coming kingdom.
8. “But let us, being of the day, be sober, having put on the breastplate of
faith an love, and the helmet, the hope of salvation.” The apostle exhibits
the powerful antithesis of a debauched world and a slumbering Church on
the one hand, panic-stricken with the most terrible surprise in the world’s
history, and the faithful few on the other, washed in the blood, filled with
the Spirit, and on the tiptoe of thrilling anticipation, anxiously watching
and waiting their Lord’s return, and consequently not taken in the surprise
of the midnight cry, destined to come upon all the world as a “thief in the
night.”
9,10. “That whether we may watch or sleep, we shall live along with Him.”
Here is evidently an allusion to the bodies of the saints, in
(ontradistinction to their souls, as the great multitude sleep in the dust, and
only the present generation are living upon the earth, and watching with
mortal eyes to see their coming King. Hence, the admonition of the apostle
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that, whether we live to behold his glorious coming or fall asleep with our
predecessors, we shall enjoy spiritual and eternal life with him.
11. “Therefore exhort one another and edify one another, as you also do.”
Paul had so faithfully preached to those people the Lord’s return to the
earth, that he now affirms in their behalf that they are exhorting and
edifying one another with these inspiring truths. How strange the contrast
of the modern pulpit, silent on the Lord’s coming; with the apostle Paul so
positive, explicit, and importunate, night and day, by speech and pen
hammering this great truth into the minds of the people, so as to perfectly
familiarize them with it, till they can all preach it to one another in their
daily conversation. This verse closes that celebrated paragraph on the
Lord’s second coming, which opens with the thirteenth verse of the
preceding chapter, and so unfortunately interrupted by the division of the
fifth chapter coming right in the middle. God help us all to be true to the
commandments, winding up this memorable paragraph on the coming of
the Lord and the rapture of the saints; i.e., “exhort and edify one another
by these inspiring truths.” Let it be said of us, as of the Thessalonians, “as
ye do.”

ARGUMENT 8 — SUNDRY COMMANDMENTS

12. “We entreat you, brethren, to know those who labor among you,
standing before you in the Lord, and admonishing you.” This is a simple
allusion to the preachers and teachers who stand before you, This being
the attitude of a preacher, no allusion to ecclesiastical authority, as E.V.
would indicate; but the people raised up by the Holy Ghost to instruct
you in the truth of God, and correct all of your errors and mistakes.
13. “And esteem them exceedingly in Divine love on account of their work.”
This is a still further confirmation of the allusion purely to the people
whom the Holy Ghost at the time uses for your instruction and
admonition, and not, as E.V. would infer, the ecclesiastical officials. You
see that you are not to appreciate them for any personal or official
consideration, but simply for the sake of their work, and they are true to
God, preaching and expounding to you the pure word of life, and warning
you faithfully against all sin, error, and wrong-doing in every respect. In
that case you are to “esteem them exceedingly in love;” i.e., the Divine
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agape, which is poured out in the heart by the Holy Ghost. “Live in peace
among yourselves.” If you will all get the “peace of God,” which comes
only in entire sanctification, you will have no difficulty in living in peace.
14. “We exhort, you, brethren, admonish the disorderly.” When God
speaks of disorder, he means sin. How sad to see a preacher standing
before a congregation of his own members, heterogeneously blackened with
a vast diversity of sins, and all tangled up in the devil’s lassoes, and talk
out his soft, delicate, smooth, little sermonette, ingeniously manufactured
for the occasion, to pass over the heads, and hurt nobody, and let the
people drop through his fingers into hell; instead of thundering against
every damning sin like a messenger from heaven, and doing his utmost to
bring the people to repentance! What an awful account when he meets his
congregation, covered with shame and “everlasting contempt,” as they all
stand before the great white Throne! “Comfort the small-souled.” “Feeble-
minded”(E.V.) is incorrect and misleading, as if they were demented or the
mind enfeebled in some way. The literal Greek is simply “small-souled”
people. Multiplied millions of people in this world are the one talented
class, having small souls. We should be very careful with them, lest we
grieve and discourage them. Though their souls are ever so small, if we can
squeeze them through the pearly gate, they will have all eternity in which
to grow. If you meet them a million of years from now, you will find they
have developed into giants. There is a maxim among swine-feeders, “that
the runt will make the biggest hog;” but you must give him time to grow.
“Assist the weak.” This world abounds in people “weak,” physically,
mentally, spiritually, influentially, and financially. They all deserve our
sympathies, encouragement, and support. “Be long-suffering toward all.”
“Let patience have its perfect work.” Our Savior suffered to the end of his
life without the slightest resentment, and died praying for his murderers.
He is our example. If we go to heaven, we must walk in his footprints.
15. “See that no one may render evil for evil, but always pursue good
toward one another and toward all.” Good is abundantly competent to
conquer evil, if you will only give it a chance. In the day of Elisha the
prophet, Benhadad, the king of Syria, finding all of his plans against Israel
thoroughly anticipated and defeated, convening the magnates of the army
in war council, tells them to look out for the spies who report all of his
plans to the armies of Israel. A man stands up, and says, “O king, we are
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all true and loyal men! but there is a prophet in Israel who tells the king all
of your counsels the moment you whisper them in your bedchamber.”
Then says Benhadad: “Our first campaign must be to capture that man;
who knows where he is?” “At Dothan,” is responded from a person
present, claiming to have correct information as to his whereabouts. With
all expedition the Syrian army is dispatched to Dothan, with orders not to
return without the prophet Elisha, dead or alive. When Elisha and his boy
preacher walk out of their chamber at day-dawn, Gehazi exclaims, “O
Master, we die to day; do you not see we are surrounded on all sides by
the Syrian army?” “Yes; but those on our side are many more than those
who are against us.” “Why, there is not a single one on our side to fight for
us.” Then Elisha asks the Lord to open Gehazi’s eyes. Then he looked
around and saw the whole mountain covered with angels and war-chariots
of fire, so that his fears all departed. Then Elisha dropped on the Syrian
army such an optical illusion as to enable him to take complete command
of them, mistaking him for their leader, and march them to Samaria, and
turn them over to the king of Israel. When he thought he must kill them,
the prophet said, “Not so; but give them all their dinners, and send them
back to the king of Syria in peace.” This signal act of kindness made the
Syrians ashamed, so they troubled Israel no more, but lived with them in
peace. “When you undertake to overcome evil with evil, you make a great
mistake, utilizing the weaker force and neglecting the stronger, as if a man
would shoot a popgun, and neglect to fire off the loaded cannon at his
disposal.

ARGUMENT 9 — PAULINE AND WESLEYAN STANDARD OF

SANCTIFICATION
16. “Rejoice ever more.
17. “Pray without ceasing.
18. “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you.” This beautiful and notable Scripture received great
notoriety during the Wesleyan holiness movement as the shibboleth of the
embattled host. It was everywhere rendered prominent as the Wesleyan
standard of entire sanctification, insisted upon by the great founder of
Methodism. While it is the standard of John Wesley and his followers, it is
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still more consolatory that it was the standard of Paul and the Apostolic
Church. When you get the artesian well of entire sanctification in your
soul, you will find this high standard of religion not only practicable, but
easy, restful, and infinitely enjoyable. In the infancy of the experience, you
will find it necessary to be exceedingly vigilant, probably involving a
degree of care and labor which will soon obliviously evanesce, superseded
by a delectable, unutterable rest in which to “rejoice evermore, pray
without ceasing, in everything give thanks,” will become habitual, settled,
and permanent, and almost as spontaneous as breathing, so as to transpire
currently and uniformly without attracting attention or observably
encumbering the will. Amid the sweet tranquillity of the soul’s
imperturbable repose, constant joy, incessant prayer, along with holy
gratitude, become the normal state of our spiritual life, natural and
unconscious as breathing.
19. “Quench not the Spirit.” The Greek word for quench means to put out
fire by throwing water on it. Fire is the symbol of the Holy Ghost
throughout the Bible. Hence, you are never to throw Satan’s cold water on
the Lord’s fire. Popular Churches and fashionable preachers are avowedly
and habitually Spirit quenchers, always ready to throw cold water on the
fire of the Holy Ghost, thus keeping their Churches in a North Pole
atmosphere, freezing out every spark of spiritual life. This is awfully
wicked, and grievous to the Holy Spirit. Satan’s plan is to freeze people
here, and burn them in hell through all eternity. A cold religion is the
devil’s dumping-cart into hell. The scribes and Pharisees at the present day
are awfully fearful of fanaticism. They would better fear hell-fire. Satan’s
counterfeit religion in all ages has denounced God’s salvation as
“fanaticism.” Dr. Clark says, “There is very apt to be some fox-fire where
there is much true fire.” We certainly would better have religion with
fanaticism, than none at all. The man who throws away all the wheat to get
rid of the chaff, starves to death as the result of his blind folly. People
who, through fear of fanaticism and excitement, let their Churches freeze
out and die, are laughingstocks for devils in hell.
20. “Despise not prophecies.” The Greek and Hebrew for prophecy means
to boil up like an artesian well, flowing impetuously, incessantly, and
forever. Prophecy is one of the nine Pauline spiritual gifts. (1 Corinthians
12:10.) We have it defined (1 Corinthians 14:3):
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“He that prophesieth, speaketh to men edification,
exhortation, and comfort.”
This gift was the crowning glory of the pentecostal experience. It fills with
the Holy Ghost, imparts tongues of fire, split in twain, one prong to
preach hell-fire to sinners, and the other heavenly fire to sanctify the
Christians. It lets the tongue loose at both ends and in the middle, to speak
red-hot words incessantly and forever; indiscriminately, regardless of race,
rank, or color, administering edification, exhortation, and comfort to all you
meet, whithersoever you go. God’s plan is to save the world by preaching,
not the modern scientific sermonizing, which is unknown in the Bible; but
this everlasting talking, exhorting, praying, entreating, and comforting.
Dead pastors are opposed to all this, as they think the people would
monopolize their business and take it out of their hands. Moses thought
very differently when God laid the spirit of prophecy (this very thing) on
the seventy, and they all broke out preaching with all their might, like a
holiness camp-meeting under a pentecostal baptism, and the people
running to him from all the seventy prophets in different parts of the
encampment, telling him to stop them or they will take his business
forever out of his hands. Moses, thus bewildered by their multitudinous
clamor, leaps and shouts with stentorian voice, “Would God that every
man in Israel did prophesy!” Here we have the positive commandment,
“Despise not prophecies;” i. e., we are not only to permit every man,
woman, and child to throw their mouths open, and talk freely for the Lord;
but to encourage them. But the clerical wiseacre says, “They are
incompetent, having neither intellect nor education.” Jesus says, “Out of
the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praises.” What a
contrast with the dumb Churches of the present day!
21,22. “Abstain from every evil sight.” Your eyes belong to God. If you
give the devil the use of them in any way, he is certain to corrupt your
heart. You should be constantly turning your eyes away from the devil’s
advertisements, conspicuous throughout our cities, purposely to arouse
lust and allure into his hell-dens. You should never permit yourself to look
at anything evil, if you don’t want a fiend from the bottomless pit to creep
into your heart.
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ARGUMENT 10 — SANCTIFICATION AND THE COMING OF
THE LORD
23. “The God of peace himself sanctify you wholly.” The sinner is a stranger
to the God of peace; to him he is the God of wrath and retribution. Hence,
sanctification is not for sinners. Repentance and justification are the gospel
pertinent to them. The appeal here is to Christians only. Hagiasai,
sanctify, is in the aorist tense, and means instantaneously take the world
out of you; from alpha, not, and ge, the world. Regeneration takes you out
of the world, and sanctification takes the world out of you. Hence, we
must have a double divorcement from the world before we can go to
heaven. Against the gradualistic theology, which everywhere curses the
modern pulpit, the New Testament is outspoken and decisive from Alpha
to Omega. The aorist tense in this passage and hundreds more admits of
no gradualism. It positively means “sanctify you this moment.” The
gradualism in the plan of salvation is all on the human side. We gradually
approach sanctification, suddenly enter it, and gradually progress
indefinitely. The Greek for “wholly” is holoteleis, from holos, the whole,
and telos, perfection. Hence, it means entirely unto perfection; i.e., every
constituency of your being sanctified unto Completion. Paul makes no
provision for sin, and gives no place to the devil. In E.V. this word is an
adverb, qualifying sanctify. In the Greek it is a compound adjective, with a
double superlative signification. It does not occur in the classic Greek.
Paul, a tiptop linguist, manufactured this wonderful compound superlative
adjective to describe the people whose responsibility he must bear at the
pearly portals. The word describes the pronoun you, in the text. Hence,
you, yourself, must be complete in every constituency of your being if
you ever enter heaven. Many adroit tergiversations are resorted to by
Satan’s preachers to evade a clear and unequivocal revelation of God’s
truth in this passage. But not one of them can stand before the white light
radiated by the Holy Ghost from these inspired words, “May your whole
spirit, mind, and body be preserved blamelessly at the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ.” The rank and file of the modern clergy are dichotomists—
i.e., advocates of the two natures; i.e., soul and body—unfortunately
confounding spirit and mind, and preaching intellectualism and
metaphysics, instead of spirituality. John Wesley was a trichotomist, like
the apostle Paul, preaching the three constituencies of humanity—spirit,
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mind, and body. Total depravity applies to the human spirit only, not to
the mind and body. Man in the fall became a spiritual corpse, retaining his
intellectual and physical life, though terribly wrecked and dilapidated. A
thousand systems of counterfeit religions prevail in the world this day,
consisting of mentality and materiality, without a solitary vestige of
spiritual life Satan’s illusory passports to hell, all competent to live and
prosper without the Holy Ghost, who alone can quicken the dead human
spirit into life, sanctifying it with our entire being for an eternity of bliss.
The silly heresy somewhat prevalent among ignorant people, vindicating
the theory that sin remains in the body after the soul is made pure, is
utterly eradicated and annihilated by this passage, as we see here that
sanctification includes spirit, mind, and body; i.e., our entire being, leaving
no pocket for the devil. Here you see also the peculiar prominence given to
the Lord’s second coming by apostolic preaching, as in this powerful and
importunate prayer for the entire sanctification of the Thessalonians, the
petition involves their abiding in the experience till the Lord comes. Hence,
we have the New Testament standard of religion here clear and
unequivocal; i.e., entire sanctification of spirit, soul, and body, and
perseverance in the experience till the Lord comes. Hence, you see the
glorious climax of the New Testament gospel culminating in these beautiful
and transcendent truths; i.e., and the Lord’s return to the earth to execute
righteous judgments against the wicked nations and fallen Churches, and
establish his kingdom from the heads of the rivers to the ends of the earth.
24. “Faithful is he who calleth you who also will do it.” Your omnipotent
Savior, who is infinitely abundantly able to do this work, Calls you to
sanctification. Hence, it is wicked, rebellious, and blasphemous to say you
can not get it. It is not your work, but that of the omnipotent God, who
creates a world in a moment. Hence, you are left without excuse, as you
have nothing to do but turn over your sanctification into his hands, raise
the shout of faith, and be loyal to God. He does it without any help on
your part.
26. “Salute all the brothers with a holy kiss.” The word kiss is philema,
from phileo, to love, and simply means a love token given—a literal kiss of
the lips, or a cordial salutation in some other way. It is certainly our
privilege to administer the kiss; however we should not sticklerize, lest we
be brought under bondage. In this glorious full salvation the Lord breaks
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from our necks every yoke which Satan and men have put on us. So let us
jealously conserve our perfect spiritual freedom, never permitting men or
devils to lay the weight of a feather on our consciences, and see that we do
not manufacture yokes with our own hands, and put them on our own
necks. The world is in the devil’s bondage, and unsanctified Christians in
legal bondage. Let us all watch and pray, lest men, devils or our own
hands, ever interfere with this blessed, sweet, and glorious liberty, a
prelibation of heavenly bliss.
27. “I adjure you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the brethren.”
This verse solves the problem of legal oaths, as here we see that Paul
administers an oath to the brethren, that this letter should be read to all the
saints. As these people had been so recently converted out of heathenism,
it was a matter of the most vital importance that it should be read to every
one of them; hence Paul adjures them in the name of the Lord, thus
tightening up their obligations, and augmenting the certainty of the great
end in view that every disciple should hear this letter. It was not enough
simply to read it in the public audience, but they must make certain
investigation, finding out every absentee, hunting him up, and reading this
letter to him
28. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” This is simply an
apostolic benediction, such as we find, in diversified forms and
magnitudes, concluding every epistle. The popular superstition prevalent
in the Churches, using only 2 Corinthians 13:13, in the dismission of a
congregation, and restricting the privilege to an ordained clergyman, is by
no means commendable. It is certainly the gracious privilege of every
Christian conducting religious service to pronounce these benedictions
pursuant to the light and leading of the Holy Spirit.
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APOLOGUE

This epistle is one of the most lucid, clear, and beautiful of the Pauline
series, thrilling, explicit, and forceful on Paul’s two favorite themes; i.e.,
entire sanctification by a second work of grace after conversion, and the
Lord’s return to the earth in judgment and glory.
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2 THESSALONIANS
PROLOGUE

Both of the Thessalonian letters were written at Corinth, perhaps in the

fall of A.D. 52, and not far apart. The necessity of the second epistle was
created by the first, which aroused them on tiptoe, developing a great
excitement relative to the coming of the Lord, which was intensified by
certain false reports circulated by ill-designing people that the Lord had
already come and taken up his people, and they had been left. This false
rumor was augmented by a counterfeit letter with Paul’s signature sent to
them. The effect of these false reports was to flood them with grief and
mortification, thinking the Lord had come, taken up his Bride, and they
had been left. Hence, Paul forthwith sent them the second epistle, in which
he corrects the false reports, and fortifies them against similar intrigues of
Satan in the future, by calling their attention to certain prophetic events
destined to transpire before the second advent.
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CHAPTER 1

1. The Apostolic Churches were all “in God the Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ.” That excludes the masses of modern claimants altogether.

ARGUMENT 1 — SANCTIFICATION SUPERINDUCES

SUPERABOUNDING FAITH AND LOVE
The first epistle was heroic on entire sanctification, stirring up a sweeping
revival on that line. Sin always goes out to make room for grace. Love is
never perfect while mixed with depravity, and faith always imperfect till
the last doubt is eliminated.

ARGUMENT 2 — THE BLESSING OF PERSECUTION

5. We see here that it is a great blessing and an exalted honor to be counted
worthy of the kingdom of God, so that we are permitted to suffer
persecution for Christ’s sake. Hence, it says that persecution is “a
manifestation of the righteous judgment of God.” Christ (Matthew 5:10)
catalogues persecution among the beatitudes. Have you considered that the
probable reason why you are not persecuted is, because you are not
worthy of the kingdom of God? The Lord give us light to examine our
hearts, and consider our lives!

ARGUMENT 3 — THE RAPTURE

Paul gave us the largest paragraph in the first epistle on the rapture of the
saints. Here we have it again in glowing colors, describing the unearthly
splendors of that glorious revelation of the triumphant God-man in scenes
of grandeur, sublimity, and glory, beggaring all description.
6. An awful retribution awaits the persecutors of God’s saints.
7. “To you who are troubled rest with us.” How glorious to have rest with
apostles and saints in that awful day! Shall we have it? It is the revelation
of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven, with the angels of his power.
8. “In fire of flame.” Fire throughout the Bible means destruction. It is the
regular symbol of sanctification, because sin is destroyed in that work.
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Here, as in Daniel 7, it symbolizes the destruction of the wicked when our
Lord comes in his glory to execute retribution on the incorrigible, to gather
his saints, take up his Bride, and receive his crown at the hands of the
Father, King of kings and Lord of lords. The finally incorrigible are to be
destroyed, as symbolized by the fire here, and Daniel 7, Acts 3:23,
Revelation 11:18.
9. “Eternal destruction.” Aionion is the strong word in the Greek language
for endless punishment. It is used by the Holy Ghost to reveal the eternity
of the heavenly life (Matthew 24:46), human redemption (Hebrews 9:12),
and God (5:14).
10. “When he comes to be glorified among his saints, and to be wondered
at in that day among all the believers, because our testimony was believed
by you.” O what a time of wonder and admiration! Immortal tongue fails to
describe the ineffable glories of our King, who will be the center of adoring
wonder by all his saints. Meanwhile we will be lost in utter bewilderment
in contemplating God’s mercy to us, and how it happened, in the
wonderful providence of God, that we ever believed his Word and got
saved. Shall you and I participate in the enraptured wonders and glories of
God’s saints in that day?
11. Well do we join Paul in his prayers in your behalf, that God may count
us worthy of our high calling in Christ.
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CHAPTER 2

1. “We pray you, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
and our gathering unto him.” When our Lord comes, all the members of his
Bridehood will be gathered to him, and taken up to the marriage supper in
heaven.

ARGUMENT 4 — THE FALSE REPORT

2. “That you be not shaken from your mind, nor jostled, neither by a spirit
nor by word nor by letter as by us, as that the day of the Lord has come.”
Paul’s first letter had wonderfully stirred on sanctification and the coming
of the Lord. Their enemies had availed themselves of the opportunity to
circulate the report that the Lord had already come and taken up his Bride,
and they, of course, in that case had been left. This report filled them with
grief and mortification, as in that case they had been left, thus forfeiting
their place in the Bridehood. Their enemies had even confirmed this false
report, by circulating a counterfeit letter with Paul’s signature, certifying
that “the day of the Lord has come.” E.V. has the present tense here; i.e.,
“the day of the Lord is at hand.” You know Paul frequently states “the
hour is nigh.” The uniform testimony of the inspired writers is that the
“day of the Lord is at hand.” But the Greek here is in the past tense. E.V.
has it wrong. R.V. corrects it in a measure. Paul assures them of their
happy mistake, as the Lord has not yet come, and your chances are all
right. Now he proceeds in the light of prophecy to specify certain events,
which will precede the advent.

ARGUMENT 5 — THE MAN OF SIN, POPE AND ANTICHRIST

3. “Let no one deceive you in any way, because unless there may first come
an apostasy and the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction may be
revealed.” The spirit of prophecy on Paul reveals certain events, destined
to transpire before the return of our Lord, though giving him no dates as to
the time of the predicted interventions. The great apostasy here revealed
transpired in the fourth century, as the immediate result from the great
change in the attitude of the political and religious world toward the
Church. During the first three centuries following the conflagration of
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Rome, martyrs’ blood flowed incessantly, each succeeding emperor
enforcing the cruel edict of Nero, pursuant to which Paul was beheaded,
Peter crucified; and an indiscriminate massacre of the saints, especially
their ejectment to the wild beasts in the Coliseum, followed in ten great
persecutionary epochs. at intervals of about thirty years, thus mowing
down each succeeding generation with the bloody sword of martyrdom, till
the conversion of Constantine, A.D. 325. This radically revolutionized the
relation of the Church to the world. Constantine, by an imperial edict,
proclaimed Christianity the religion of the empire, thus bringing the pagan
millions into the visible Church; the effect of which was to paganize
Christianity, and degenerate the Church into Roman Catholicism. Martyr
blood and fire had kept the Church humble, poor, unpopular, and despised
three hundred years. Meanwhile she had no creed but the Bible. Now that
she was become popular, influential, and wealthy, the great Council of
Nice in Bithynia convenes, the Emperor Constantine sitting in a golden
chair, presiding over it, while they make the first human creed, which has
been followed by others in subsequent ages, thus recognizing and
inaugurating human authority, going off into ecclesiasticism, no longer
content with New Testament simplicity, substituting the Antinomian
heresies for the gospel of purity, thus turning over the nominal Christian
dispensation to the devil as the Antediluvian, Patriarchal, and Mosaic. The
“Man of sin” (E.V., is the man of lawlessness). Greek Anomia,
lawlessness, is from alpha, not, and nomos, law. Hence, it means the man
who ignores the law; i.e., treats it with contempt. The law of God says
positively and repeatedly, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die;” “The wages
of sin is death;” “He that committeth sin is of the devil.” Satan counterfeits
all of God’s work, and thus dudes the world, making them believe that he
is God, and in this way rules earth’s millions. As the result of the great
apostasy, sinning religion sailed out under the cognomen of Christianity,
boldly offering the world salvation in sin in contradistinction to the Bible,
which offers salvation from sin. Before the apostasy, Christianity was
unpopular and terribly persecuted. As the result of the Constantinian
apostasy, a system of popular Christianity, congenial to the world and
provoking no persecution, has been propagated in all lands. However, God
has always had a true people on the earth, and always will till he takes up
his Bride. These faithful few who survived the great apostasy, soon so
provoked the animosity of popular religion as again to become the victims
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of blood and slaughter. No wonder this Antinomian heresy of the sinning
religion is denominated by the Holy Spirit, “the Son of destruction;”
because nothing but wholesale ruin, death, and damnation can follow in its
tread. Every institution is abstract before it can become concrete. Satan, in
Paul’s day, was busy sowing the seed of sinning religion in the hearts of
the people; which in after ages, when martyrdom abated for a season,
assumed a visible organization in the fallen Church, and concrete
personality in the pope.
4. “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above everything called God, or
Divinity, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself off that he
is God.” This applies directly to the pope, whose deluded votaries
actually call him our lord god the pope. He exalts himself above God, in
that he claims that, as the vicar of Christ and vicegerent of God, the
government of the world, political and ecclesiastical, has been turned over
into his hands, Christ having retreated away to heaven, and left him in the
rulership of the world, to reign in his room and stead. This is the very
definition of antichrist, as anti means instead of; hence antichrist is a
person in the place of Christ. While the pope is the antichrist, all the
preachers of a sinning religion offer the people salvation independently of
Christ and in opposition to him, and consequently practically fall under
the cognomen of antichrist, as the subordinates of the pope. The Bible
positively reveals that all in sin are lost, and salvation is only possible in
the eradication of sin, which none but Christ can do. Hence, the man who
offers you salvation, without going to Christ and having your sins
exterminated by Omnipotent Grace, assumes the attitude of antichrist; i.e.,
a substitute for Christ. John said there were many in his day. The world is
flooded with them at the present day, just as Christ is the personal head of
all true soul-savers, who faithfully hold him up as the only One competent
to impart actual salvation in the utter destruction of sin; even so the pope
of Rome is the personal head of all who offer salvation to the people on
various lines of human substitution. While the pope is, and always has
been, the antichrist in the proper sense—i.e., the chief antichrist—there is
no doubt but in prophetic fulfillment he will in a future day assume much
greater prominence in the development and manifestation of the
antichristhood. Doubtless the great tribulation will open a wide door to the
assumption of the old papistical claims of a universal pontificate, which
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has in all ages been the climacteric dream of the papacy. A similar door
was opened in the fall of the Roman Empire, when the pope did boldly
arrogate to himself this universal pontificate. When all human thrones shall
fall (Daniel 7), rest assured the pope, pursuant to his long-cherished
pretensions, will assume absolute autocracy, thus developing into the
eighth head of the Roman beast (Revelation 17); as John says that this
eighth is one of the seven, it must be the pope, because he is the only
surviving head of the seven-headed Roman beast (Revelation 13), the other
six; i.e., the kingdom, the consulate, the triumvirate, the dictatorship, the
tribuneship, and the empire (the empire having long ago passed away),
leaving the papacy the successor of the sixth imperial head, which received
the deadly wound in the destruction of the empire by the Goths, Huns,
and Vandals; the only survivor, the deadly wound on the imperial head
having been healed in the papacy. During the terrible confusion of the
tribulation, when all human thrones shall be cast down (Daniel 7), rely
upon it the pope will endeavor to occupy and recuperate every fallen
throne. For this he is making vigorous preparations in the United States of
America as well as other countries. As the Christhood develops and
culminates in the second Coming, doubtless Satan, the uncompromising
rival of Christ, will perpetuate a corresponding development of the
antichristhood. O what a grand open door for the magnification of the
antichristhood, when all kingdoms shall totter and human governments
collapse and fall amid the terrible revolutions of Armageddon (Revelation
16)! Paul here describes the pope “as sitting in the temple of God, showing
himself off that he is God.” This prophecy received a signal fulfillment in
1870. On the day appointed to proclaim the dogma of his infallibilty in
presence of fifty thousand people in St. Peter’s Cathedral, arrangements
were made, at tremendous cost, to so encompass the multitude with
concentric mirrors as to reflect the splendors of the pope’s person, most
gorgeously decked with gems, rubies, diamonds, and gold, so as to throw
an unearthly splendor from his person, dazzling the eyes of the multitude,
and impressing them with the very presence of God. All this blasphemous
enterprise was signally defeated by Him who sits upon the circle of the
heavens, and turns the seasons round. At the very hour appointed for the
blasphemous proclamation of the pope’s infallibility, God sent a terrible
thunderstorm, so darkening the elements as to utterly disqualify them to
use the mirrors, and thus permit the pope “to show off himself as God.”
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6. “Now you know that which hindereth, that He should be revealed in his
time.
7. “For already the mystery of lawlessness is working; only there is one
hindering until he be taken from the midst.” In Paul’s day the Satanic
mystery of a sinning religion in the normal Church of Christ was at work,
which in after ages developed into the papacy and Romanism, and is now
rapidly developing in the swift apostasy of all the Protestant Churches
outside the holiness movement. The “hindering one” here mentioned by
Paul as keeping back the manifestation of “this man of lawlessness”—i.e.,
the pope—was the Roman Emperor, who would have killed the pope if he
had risen in his day. The world could not have a Caesar and a pope at the
same time. Hence, Caesar must fall before the pope can rise. Paul here very
judiciously in this prophecy withholds the personal mention of the Roman
Emperor, as he very probably would have expedited his own martyrdom
by a direct statement. It is a historic fact that the bishop of Rome, who
became pope, actually did assume supremacy over the Roman world soon
after the fall of the emperor, and has claimed it ever since, and is only now
awaiting an opportunity to enforce his claim, which he will doubtless find
in the great Tribulation.
8. “And then that lawless one shall be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will
destroy by the breath of his mouth, and annihilate by the brightness of his
presence.” The “breath of his mouth” evidently means the Bible. (2
Timothy 3:16.) “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” The Greek
says, “All Scripture is God breathed;” i.e., the Bible from Alpha to Omega
is the breath of God. O how the Bible has been destroying the power of
the pope the last two hundred years! The sword of the Spirit hews the
papistical pretensions all to pieces wherever it goes. If you would
successfully fight the devil and the pope, take the Bible all the time. “Will
annihilate him by the brightness of His presence.” John devotes four
chapters (Revelation 16,17,18,19) to a climacteric description of the great
Tribulation. In the sixteenth chapter, the bloody wars of Armageddon
shake all kings from their thrones. In the seventeenth chapter, antichrist
lays claim to all the vacated thrones. In the eighteenth chapter the tide
turns terrifically against antichrist in the fall of Babylon, his Bride. In the
nineteenth chapter there is a mighty culmination. Christ rides forth on the
white horse. All the kings of the earth are marshaled against him, only to
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suffer signal defeat and final overthrow. Last of all the rivals of Christ on
the earth (except Satan), Babylon having fallen and the kings all perished,
still pope and Mohammed survive upon the earth, hopeful again to raise
up armies and Churches. But we see them
“both cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone.”
(Revelation 19:20.)
The next verse says,
“The rest were slain by the sword proceeding out from the mouth
of him that sitteth upon the horse;”
i.e., all their leaders having been taken out of the world, the surviving
millions inhabiting the globe at the close of the Tribulation will all be
converted to God, there being no devil on the earth, either personally,
through his demoniacal myrmidons, nor through human agency, to lead
them.
9. “Whose coming is according to the working o Satan in all power, signs,
and wonders of falsehood.” This is the coming of the pope; i.e., antichrist.
Jannes and Jambres in the days of Moses wrought miracles by the power
of the devil. Satan can perform works so far superhuman as to be
incomprehensible by us; i.e., miraculous in our estimation. Though he is a
finite being, and utterly incompetent to compete with God, yet he can do
works so far above our comprehension as to pass off currently for
miracles. The Tribulation will be the great final conflict, in which,
doubtless, Satan, through the pope and others, will dazzle the eyes of the
world with his miracles, “deceiving, if possible, even the elect.”
10. “In every delusion of unrighteousness to them that perish, because they
did not receive the Divine love of the truth, that they might be saved.” This
agape, so prominent in the New Testament, is poured out in the heart by
the Holy Ghost (Romans 5:5), and is the very essence of Holy Ghost
religion, and the only thing that gives you the Divine nature and saves you.
While the Bible is going to the ends of the earth, the division here is
rapidly being drawn between the savable and unsavable people.
Proportionately to the circulation of the Scriptures, infidelity is on the
increase, as action always produces reaction, and Satan works wherever
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God works, contesting every inch of ground, and dividing the spoils with
him, the calling out of the elect always revealing the non-elect.
11. “Therefore God sends on them the working of delusion, that they may
believe a lie,
12. “That they may all be condemned who believe not the truth, but take
pleasure in unrighteousness.” The world is all on probation, being duly
tested and tried for the unchangeable state of eternity. Satan could not be
in the world if God did not permit him, as in due time he is going to take
him out. (Revelation 20.) The culmination is rapidly developing, and the
gospel, with unprecedented expedition, is speeding its flight to every
nation, revealing the appreciative elect in every land, and rendering
conspicuous the non-elect millions, who are fast ripening for destruction.
Though the Bible is in every home in many countries, how few
comparatively read, believe, and obey it! It lies on every pulpit, to be
insulted with the human dogmata of a sinning religion. The issues of
eternity are culminating on all sides. How very few have the grit and grace
to preach the Word as it is, fearless of men and devils! If God were to save
people against their will, he must dehumanize them. When they do not will
to receive his truth in the love of it, what can he do but leave them in the
hands of the devil, to “believe a lie (and that lie is a sinning religion), and
all be damned who do not believe the truth, but take pleasure in
unrighteousness.” God’s religion is self-denial throughout. Satan’s
counterfeit offers you salvation and heaven without self-denial. The
people of this world will have the pleasures of sin. If they become
religious, they still hold on to the world’s sinful pleasures, thus
worshipping the devil instead of God, believing his lies rather than God’s
truth, and receiving damnation instead of salvation. We should expedite the
gospel to the ends of the earth for the sake of the elect; meanwhile the non-
elect, who reject and abide under the delusions of Satan, will only plunge
into a hotter hell than if they had never heard the silver trumpet blow.

ARGUMENT 6 — ELECTION THROUGH SANCTIFICATION OF

THE SPIRIT
13. “But we ought to give thanks to God always in your behalf, brethren
beloved of the Lord, because God chose you unto salvation from the
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beginning through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” It is
exceedingly consolatory to know that God elected us millions of ages
before we elected him in the sanctification of the Spirit. Let us hold on to
all of God’s precious Word, even though it may seem to antagonize some
of our creeds. Can men, by the free exercise of their will, contravene the
Word of the Lord? They certainly can. David, flying from Saul like a
bloodthirsty greyhound on his track, arriving at Keilah, receives an
adulatory ovation by the citizens. Suspicious of their hypocrisy and their
evil intention to purchase royal favor with his head, he goes to the Lord in
secret prayer for the needed revelation. “Will the men of Keilah deliver me
up into his hand?” “Will Saul come down?” The Lord said,
“He will come down. They will deliver thee up.”
(1 Samuel 23:11,12.)
Here we have a plain statement, Will come down to Keilah, and the
Keilites will deliver David into his hands. But we find that neither of these
events transpired, because David fled away with all possible expedition.
Then Saul, close on his track, hearing that he was gone, changed his route,
and did not come to Keilah. Though it is not so specified, David well
understood “If I stay, Saul will come down, and they will deliver me up.
Hence, I will hasten my flight from Keilah.” The Bible is the most
common-sensical book in all the world. Let us believe it all, and never
saddle on it any of our creedistic interpretation. Because our little gourd-
heads are incompetent to harmonize God’s sovereignty and man’s free
agency, is no reason why they are not both true. So let us believe both and
everything else revealed in the Bible, rejoicing on our way. The Greek
word for election is eklektoi, from ek, out, and lego, to choose. Hence, it
has a double meaning, involving both the Divine and the human; i.e., God
chooses us, and we choose him. We see here that this election “is through
the sanctification of the Spirit.” Hence, if you do not get sanctified, your
election is an eternal failure. Calvinists ought to be red-hot
sanctificationists by the genuine route of the Holy Ghost and fire, as their
doctrine all collapses without the sanctification of the Spirit. We see here
that belief of the truth follows the sanctification of the Spirit. How can
this be? Do I not have to get sanctified by faith? Of course, you must have
faith for sanctification if you get it, as that is the only way you can obtain
it. But your final election in heaven not only requires you to be sanctified
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by the Spirit, but to live a holy life by faith in all of God’s truth. The faith
period of Christian experience is subsequent to sanctification—the faith of
the unsanctified always having a large admixture of doubt, fog, and
skepticism, terribly conflictious with that gigantic grasp of inspired truth
necessary to heroically appropriate the Divine promises, and bring real and
perpetual victory into our spiritual life. I preached fifteen years without
sanctification, thinking all the time that I believed the Bible; but I now see
that I was a semi-infidel. Entire sanctification must burn out all the devil’s
doubt and fog before we really are prepared to live the life of faith in God
15. “Then, therefore, brethren, stand and hold the commandments which
you have been taught, whether by our word or epistle.” “Traditions,” in
E.V., is by no means a good translation, as that word in modern use
conveys the idea. of something vague and shadowy transmitted to us.
There is no such an idea in the original. He simply exhorts them to be
steadfast, and hold pertinaciously all of his teaching, whether oral, in their
presence, or epistolary in their absence.
17. “Comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good work and
word.” This is Paul’s fervent prayer to the Father and the Son in behalf of
the Thessalonians. The Holy Ghost is the Comforter, and the only One in
the universe. Human comfort being a mere sham, not only do we need the
indwelling Holy Spirit as a Comforter, but his establishing grace is our
only fortification against backsliding out of the sanctified experience. John
Wesley said, the people in his day generally had to get sanctified two or
three times before they became established in it, so as to abide. John
Fletcher received the experience five times, before he became so established
as to retain it in triumph to the end of his life. This establishing grace is
much neglected, and consequently great and distressing defection in many
localities. There is no reason why any one should ever lose the experience
of holiness, as you have nothing to do but be true to God, obedient to his
will, and feed on his Word, to “grow up like calves of the stall,” making
great and rapid proficiency in all the beautiful and amiable graces of
spiritual establishment.
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CHAPTER 3

2. “That we may be delivered from ungodly and wicked men.” The Greek,
which I translate “ungodly,” is atopon, from alpha, not, and topos, place.
Hence, it literally means out of place. But man’s place is with God. He is
out of place and ruined when he is away from God. How pertinent Paul’s
solicitation for prayer that the Word may run and be glorified!

ARGUMENT 7 — COMPLETE DELIVERANCE FROM THE DEVIL

3. “But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and keep you from the
evil one.” Unfortunately, the E.V. translates this evil, giving the abstract;
whereas the Greek gives the concrete. Instead of the prayer of Paul and
Christ for all the Christians to be delivered from “evil,” the true rendering
is the “evil one;” i.e., the devil himself. We have this petition in the Lord’s
Prayer (Matthew 6), and in his valedictory prayer for the sanctification of
all that should ever follow him in this world. So, here we see Paul and
Jesus both praying that their followers shall be delivered from the devil,
setting forth the glorious reality that it is the happy privilege of all true
Christians to get rid of the devil altogether; not that we will be free from
his temptations, for they can never hurt us, but are really in the victorious
grace of God made a great source of blessing to us, in the discipline of our
virtues, the trial of our faith, and the development of our gifts and graces,
as the soldier who fights no battles wins no victories; but while Satan roars
like a lion (and his roaring can never hurt us), he is not allowed to touch us.
Truly, he can never get in gunshot of us. Though he shoots at us day and
night, he only wastes his ammunition. Though he fishes all day in our
pond, he will never catch anything, because entire sanctification has taken
everything out of our hearts that wants the devil’s bait, so he toils all day,
catches nothing, and goes home at evening with weary leg and hungry
stomach. You must have faith in Christ for justification s a sinner, and
faith for sanctification as a Christian. But you have an awful battle to fight,
if you ever stand on the mount of victory. In this war with the devil, you
have all the world against you. Hence, you are sure to fall and sink into
hell, unless you turn the battle over to the Omnipotent Jesus, who is a
million times stronger than the devil and all the world combined. You do
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this by faith after you have been sanctified. If you have faith in Jesus for
victory every moment, you have victory every moment; if you have faith
in Jesus to keep the devil from ever putting his black hand on you, he will
never touch you. What a glorious privilege to get rid of the devil forever!
Then his temptations will all be sanctified to your good, and turned into a
blessing to you. The battlefield makes the hero, who wears the victor’s
wreath forever.
4. “I have confidence in the Lord, that you do and will do the things which
we command.” What a glorious experience had Paul at Thessalonica! You
can be there, where Paul would thus command you if he were on the earth
today.
5. “The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and the patience of
Christ.” God’s love sent his Son to die for us. We can have the same love,
filling us with the spirit of martyrdom. Christ was perfectly patient amid
the insults and tortures of a most cruel death. He died praying for his
murderers. We can have the same patience.

ARGUMENT 8 — CHURCH DISCIPLINE

6. “I command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
you withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not
according to the instruction which he received from us.” One rotten potato
will rot a whole barrel. “Truly, the children of this world are wiser in their
generation than the children of light.” If we did not separate the rotten
from the sound, all of our fruits and vegetables would rot in a pile. How
sadly this was verified in the Churches! One dancing damsel will lead all of
the young people into Satan’s fandangos. No wonder so many Churches
are rotten masses of spiritual putrefaction. The forfeiture of disciplinary
power is the saddest phenomenon of the age. It simply illustrates the
deplorable fact that the popular Churches are past redemption. Luther,
Wesley, and Bunyan tried it, and failed. They saved many individuals. But
history is silent on the reclamation of a fallen Church. Bishop Key says
that it easier for God to raise up a new one than resurrect a dead one. If all
of the Churches in this city (Los Angeles, California) would obey this
plain and positive commandment, it would bring a Pentecost on California.
If one should try it alone, the excommunicated would simply unite with
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other Churches, and the effect on them for their salvation would be largely
counteracted. I knew a Methodist Church where Judge J___ wore the bell,
and presided over the Official Board. Still he was a notorious sinner, as all
knew and frankly admitted. Revivals came and went, but could not touch
him. He would feed and pay the preachers, and do everything but get
religion. So eventually the Conference sent a simple-hearted little man to
that circuit. On arrival, he began revivals, and went round his circuit like a
fiery cyclone. When he got through, he turned and excommunicated all that
did not get religion (that was in the olden time). He did not begin with the
little folks, but walloped the big horse first of all. The excitement was
intense. Many said, “The Church is ruined.” The stewards told the
preacher he would starve, as Judge J___ collected more money than all the
balance. He said he would rather starve for God, than fatten for the devil.
The judge roared like a lion, and said he had spent his money freely for the
Church, and they had treated him like a dog. So he went out with a rage,
vociferating that he would never be a Methodist again. Other Churches had
their eye on him. Three years roll away. Of course, his mad spell wore off.
A revival of unusual power visits the Methodist Church. Many hard
reprobates are gloriously saved. The revival runs about three months.
Erelong the judge, who never entered the house since his expulsion, is seen
in the vestibule. He comes on, and nightly gets a little nearer, till, to the
surprise of all, he comes and falls full-length at the mourner’s bench. Night
after night for two whole weeks he is heard groaning at the altar. Finally he
comes through as a sunburst. I conversed with his widow (a paragon saint)
after his death, about ten years subsequent to his conversion. She told me
he passed out of the world in glorious triumph. She said she believed he
would have been lost if they had not turned him out of the Church. He was
not a bad man; had no evil habits. About all that could be said was, that he
had no religion, and did not claim to have. He depended on the prayers of
his wife, the preachers, and the good people to save him. But they turned
him out. On the abatement of his wealth, he began to soliloquize, “Who
cares for poor me? They have given me over to the devil” The simple fact
is, Judge J___ has to do something for himself, or the devil will get him.
Conviction seized him. He cried to God nigh and day, and doubtless is this
moment playing on his golden harp.
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ARGUMENT 9 — SELF-SUPPORTING EVANGELISM
7-12. Here we see that while the apostles earned their bread by manual
labor, they certify (verse 9) that they have a right to their temporal
support while preaching the gospel. This is certainly the feasible basis for
the evangelization of the world. Delinquency in reference to our temporal
support does not excuse us from the commission, “Go ye into all the
world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” We are to go and preach
just as if we had a bushel of gold lying in the Bank of England to draw on
ad libitum, trusting God, with or without human agency, to feed us like he
feeds the birds. Thus we are to push the conquest to the ends of the earth,
evangelizing all nations under the commission,
“Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:20.)
With his presence we can certainly trust him for our bread. All this so
strikingly contrasts with the financial policy of modern ecclesiasticism,
hiring the preacher like a rail-splitter.
10. “For when we were with you, we commanded this to you, that if any one
does not wish to work, let him not eat.” The Bible is the plainest of all
books, solving every problem of duty so clearly as to leave al without
excuse. Well are we assured that “he who runs may read,” and the
“wayfaring men, though fools, may not err therein.” (Isaiah.) On this great
problem of material sustenance, O how plain and simple, “If any one is
not willing to work, let him not eat!” When the first American settlement,
founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, having consumed the supply
brought over from England, and finding the Indian resources exceedingly
meager, starvation began to look them in the face, their only hope is to fell
the forest, and cultivate the rich virgin soils. But how can they do this,
when nearly all of their colony are goldsmiths, having come over in search
of the precious metals, and their tender hands never hardened by the ax,
maul, and hoe. In their emergency, fortunately they elect Captain John
Smith president, whose first law proclaimed in the Colony is a transcript
of this laconic mandate of the apostle Paul, “Those who do not work shall
not eat.” Soon cloth coats are stacked, sleeves rolled up, and all hands
blistered while the Colony is vocal with the roar of the ax, the thunder of
the maul, and the crash and smash of falling trees, whose burning brush
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lights the firmament by night; and they are all feasting on peas, potatoes,
and roasting-ears. With the enforcement of this simple law of heaven, earth
teems with plenty, and beggary takes her everlasting flight; hireling
preachers all transformed into shouting evangelists.
13. “Brethren, be ye not weary doing well.” What a salutary guarantee
against dissatisfaction, and what a stimulant to indefatigable perseverance
in every laudable enterprise!

ARGUMENT 10 — CURE FOR HERESY

14. “If any one does not hearken to our Word through the epistle, spot him;
have no fellowship with him, in order that he may be ashamed.” All the
doctrines of grace in the Bible are beautifully focalized in the apostolical
epistles. Consequently these plain, concise, inspired letters give you a
miniature Bible, infinitely to your convenience and profit. Suppose this
law were enforced in the Churches of the present day, what would become
of bejeweled, gaudily-appareled, frolicking anti-holiness members? They
would move out like a landslide, leaving the faithful few, who, like
Zacharias and Elisabeth, “are walking in all the commandments and
ordinances blameless.” We never can redeem the Church from sin, Satan,
and hell, unless we enforce New Testament discipline. It is the imperative
duty of every pastor this day to read these letters to every member, and
see that they accept them, and govern their lives accordingly, with a
distinct understanding that all recusants and delinquents forfeit their
membership. Paul even obligated the Thessalonians, in a sacred oath, to
read these letters to every member. What will the pastors do in judgment-
day, when God shall hold them to a strict account for the souls committed
to their care, whom they, by willful neglect of known duty, have permitted
to slip through their fingers into hell? Here we see a plain commandment in
the New Testament, to withhold fellowship from every brother and sister
who do not hearken to the plain Word of God revealed in the Bible.
15. “Do not treat him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.” This
excommunicated man is your brother in Adam, and may, by the grace of
God, become your brother in Christ. Hence, when non-fellowshiped for
disobedience, do not give him up, but pray for him and admonish the more
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faithfully that the Lord may use the severity of Church discipline to
convict him and bring him to repentance.
17. These people had been troubled with a false letter by an enemy,
bearing Paul’s counterfeit signature. Therefore, when Luke wrote the
letters responsive to his dictation, Paul gave his autograph.
18. This benediction is commendable for its beauty, brevity, and grace.
Use it freely in the dismission of your meetings.
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APOLOGUE

This letter is really supplementary to the first, and, like it, flooded with
Paul’s favorite themes; i.e., entire sanctification and the Lord’s return to
the earth; meanwhile the apostle interjects some profoundly stirring
prophecies, relative to the coming of the Lord, precedent and concomitant
events. However, those prophecies relative to the great Constantinian
apostasy and the revelation of the “Man of sin” have already been fulfilled,
and no longer intervene between us and the greatest and most notable event
of the world’s history; i.e., the return of the glorified Jesus to judge the
wicked, take up his saints, and be crowned king of all nations, to reign
forever. Therefore, we should all be robed and ready on our watch-towers,
looking out for our glorious King.
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1 TIMOTHY
PROLOGUE

We now reach a department of the Pauline Scriptures in some respects by

far the most important of all; i.e., in the fact that while the others have
been addressed to the membership, these are directed to the preachers.
While they constitute an awful admonition and a solemn warning to the
backslidden pastors of the fallen Churches, they turn a flood-tide of holy
inspiration on the grand army of preachers, male and female, whom God is
raising up—i.e., the holiness movement—to carry the gospel into every
nation, call out the elect of every tribe, and thus get the Bride ready for the
return of her Divine Spouse. Paul arrived at Rome during his first
imprisonment, in February, A.D. 61. Having preached two years in his
hired house, we find him in the barracks guarded by the soldiers and
preaching daily to the Praetorian army, February, A.D. 63. As there were
no charges against him criminal in Roman law, having been acquitted on
trial, he resumes his evangelistic peregrinations, returning to Asia, and
preaching to the different Churches till about 65. Do not forget that your
post-scripts in E.V. following these epistles are all utterly spurious, not a
single one of them appearing in the original. The one following this epistle
says it was written at Laodicea, an Asiatic city not far from Ephesus;
whereas, along with Dean Alford and other eminent critics, I am satisfied it
was written in Europe.
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CHAPTER 1

2. “To Timothy, a beloved child in the faith.” Mark the parental tenderness
of Paul; instead of calling him his son, he designates him a beloved child.
3. “As I call thee to abide in Ephesus, going into Macedonia.” I am satisfied
Paul never wrote this letter when over in Asia while Timothy was with
him, as he left him there; but after crossing the Aegan Sea, and landing in
Europe, he dictated it to Luke while stopping and preaching in some of
those Macedonian Churches; i.e., Philippi, Thessalonica, or Berea. “In
order that you may command certain ones not to teach heterodoxy.”
Orthodoxy is the simple, unsophisticated Word of God. Everything else is
heterodox. These words have been awfully abused by unspiritual
preachers, and frequently given even a reverse interpretation. The
preachers who confine themselves to the pure and unadulterated Word are
this day like angels’ visits.

ARGUMENT 1 — FABLES AND SUCCESSION

4. “And not to give heed to fables.” These “fables” include all human creeds
and uninspired authorities. Of course, all books harmonical with the Bible
and expository of it, are perfectly right in their place. They claim nothing
new and no authority, but simply refer you to the Word of God, the only
authority in the universe. Hence, all talk about human authority is
heterodoxical and nonsensical, as there is no such thing in the universe.
Hence, Paul warns us all to give no heed to fables: i.e., uninspired
authorities, human creeds as such independently of God’s plain and simple
Word, and endless genealogies. Fallen Judaism set great store on
genealogies. Every priest must trace his lineage back to Aaron, before he
has a right to officiate. Roman Catholics and many Protestant Churches
hang their claims to orthodoxy on apostolical, patriarchal, episcopal, or
baptismal succession. Millions of people have been humbugged on those
lines, and proselyted to Romanism or some other pretentious
ecclesiasticism. It is a trick of Satan from beginning to end to detract
attention from Christ to humanisms, and drag you into hell. Suppose
Romanism can trace organic succession back to Peter and Paul, and it turns
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out God had the organization then, and Satan has it now. Look in the New
Testament, and see if you can find a trace of the pompous and ponderous
organization of Romanism at the present day. You know you can not. This
whole problem is a human conceit, fabricated by the enemy to sidetrack
and ruin souls. I heard much more preaching on it during my unregenerate
life than on salvation. Whole communities were revolutionized and
humbugged in this way. There is simply nothing in it. The Divine Ecclesia
is the Church of God, and the only one. It simply means the “called out,”
and consists of the people who have heard the call of the Holy Ghost,
come out of the world, and separated themselves unto God, to live and die
for him alone. Hence, there is but one fact to be settled in the solution of
all this vexed Church question, Are you a child of God? Have you been
born from above? Does the Spirit himself bear witness that you are a child
of God? Are you walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the
Lord blameless? If all this is true, you are regenerated and sanctified.
Hence, you need not trouble yourself about the generations of bygone
centuries. Every tub stands on its own bottom. You need not go on a wild-
goose chase to Rome and Constantinople. You need not trouble the
graveyards, and disturb the tombs of the patriarchs, ransacking the
archives of the Middle Ages, to see that no link is missing in the chain of
your apostolic succession. There is but one link in the chain, and that
doesn’t reach back, but straight up to heaven. It identifies you with your
Heavenly Father, and confirms your adoption into the family of God,
which is the only true Church in earth and heaven. No wonder Paul gave
this rigid admonition to Timothy and all other preachers, “not to give heed
to fables and genealogies, which present controversies rather than the
economy of God, which is in faith.” How Satan has employed millions of
demons manufacturing these silly sophistries in hell, and running up great
trainloads over the black valley railroad to supply the preachers in this
world since the great apostasy fifteen hundred years!

ARGUMENT 2 — THE WHOLE BIBLE IN A NUTSHELL

5. “The end of the commandment is Divine love out of a clean heart, and a
good conscience and faith free from hypocrisy.” This verse is a wonderful
convenience to all candid inquirers after truth, as it focalizes all the
commandments in the Bible, and con substantiates them in this abbreviated
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statement, which all are competent to receive and remember. This agape,
Divine love, is the essence of the Divine nature (1 John 4:18), indigenous
only in the heart of God, and exotic in all other beings and dependent
solely on Divine intervention for its existence. The Holy Ghost, who is
none other than very and eternal God, pours it out into truly penitent and
believing hearts. (Romans 5:5.) As our hearts are depraved by the fall, we
must have a subsequent purgation, which we receive in the great work of
entire sanctification wrought by the Holy Ghost. This is indispensable to
the perpetuity and purity of that heavenly stream poured into our hearts
in regeneration. Not only must this Divine love, as here revealed, flow out
of a clean heart but a “good conscience.” Paul said he lived in all good
conscience before he was converted. Yet his conscience was not a correct
guide, because he had not received the Divine love and a Clean heart. In
Romans 9:1, he testifies, “My conscience bearing me witness in the Holy
Ghost.” Hence, we see that this noble God-given faculty, the voice of God
in the soul, must be corroborated by the Holy Ghost, in order to be a
correct guide. But not only is this Divine love to flow out of a “clean heart
and a good conscience, but faith free from hypocrisy;” i.e., an
unhypocritical faith, rendering our lives and conduct perfectly transparent
under all circumstances. The Grecian god Momus said the creation of man
was a great failure, as there should by all means be a mirror in his breast, so
you could look in and see his thoughts.
6. “From which some, having deflected, have gone away into empty
talking.” All speaking without the solid truth of God and the Holy Ghost
is empty. Hence, when you preach anything except the “love of God
flowing out of a clean heart, and a good conscience and unhypocritical
faith,” you are simply indulging in empty talk. O the empty little talks
ringing from the pulpits at the present day, neither freighted with solid
saving truth nor the dynamite of the Holy Ghost!
7. “Wishing to be teachers of the law, not knowing either what things they
say, nor concerning what they affirm.” No wonder our Savior forbade his
own apostles to go and preach the sanctified gospel till they received the
pentecostal experience. He knew they could not preach successfully that
they had never experienced. That is our great trouble, “the blind leading the
blind, and all falling into the ditch together;” millions, like signboards,
pointing out road they never travel.
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9. “Knowing this, that the law is not for a righteous man, but for the
lawless, the disorderly, the ungodly, the sinners, the unholy, the profane,
patricides matricides, homicides,
10. “Fornicators, Sodomites, kidnapers, liars, perjurers, and if there is
anything else contrary to hygienic teaching,
11. “According to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, with which I
have been entrusted.” What a black catalogue! Patricide is a murderer of a
father, and matricide of a mother. O the thousands of fathers and mothers
who are murdered by the wicked lives of their children, thus killing them
with sorrow and bringing down their prematurely gray hairs to an untimely
grave! Homicide is the murder of a man. John says, “He that hateth his
brother is a murderer.” Hatred is the spirit of murder. If you have it in
your heart, you are a murderer in the sight of God. The Sodomites were
accused of gross brutality, too dark to mention. Kidnappers have
depopulated poor Africa for ages indefinite, carrying away her people, and
selling them into slavery, thus retarding her progress, baffling her
civilization, and making her significantly the Dark Continent. “If there is
anything else contrary to hygienic teaching,” or, as E.V. beautifully says,
“sound doctrine;” the Greek word “hygienic” is very significant in this
passage, since holiness has a hygienic meaning; i.e., soul soundness. In
regeneration your dead soul receives the life of God. In sanctification your
soul is healed of all hereditary ailments. Children must be born before they
can be treated for hereditary diseases. So you must be born of God before
you can he sanctified, as this glorious grace is only for God’s children.
What a wonderful contrast between the New Testament and the popular
creeds; the Pauline preaching and the metropolitan pulpits of the present
day! I was brought up in a country rent and torn by sectarian wars. I
would hear an announcement, “Pastor A— will preach a doctrinal sermon.
We crowd his house, and listen two to four hours while he thoroughly
ventilates and defends his creed; simultaneously so entrenching upon
Pastor B— that he must appoint a day for a doctrinal sermon. Then
Pastors C— and D— are both bleeding from controversial bullet-holes, and
must each in turn likewise give us a big doctrinal sermon. With all this the
Pauline truth, “Divine love out of a clean heart, good conscience, and
unhypocritical faith” had neither part nor lot. Now you see plainly from
this Scripture that nothing but sin antagonizes the saving grace of God. So,
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when Paul tells us what is “contrary to sound doctrine,” he simply gives
us this long black catalogue of soul-destroying vices. In your “Holy Bible”
there is but one doctrine focalized from alpha to omega, and that doctrine
is holiness. Nothing but sin antagonizes holiness. What a jubilee the devils
in the pandemonium enjoyed at the expense of those four pastors I heard
in my childhood, wearing themselves out and distracting the people over
their doctrinal controversies, which had no more to do with salvation than
the old dead issues between the Pharisees and Sadducees. There is but one
issue in the Bible; that is personal salvation, which is antagonized by
nothing but sin.

ARGUMENT 3 — PAUL THE CHIEF OF SINNERS

12. “I give thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ, who fills me up with dynamite.”
The Greek here is endunamosanti. En means with, dunamis, dynamite. It
is the verb form of the word and in aorist tense, which reveals an
instantaneous action. Hence, Paul certifies that Christ filled him up with
dynamite in a moment. No wonder he was always loaded, and ready to
shoot on a moment’s notification. The same Omnipotent Christ is ready to
load up you and me, and prepare us every moment to fire on the devil.
“Because he considered me faithful, putting me in the ministry,
13. “Formerly being an evil speaker, a persecutor, and an insulter; but I
obtained mercy, because I did it ignorant in unbelief.” Honesty was the
saving trait in Paul’s character. Fortified by the greatest human learning,
the most consummate ecclesiastical bigotry, and official power, he could
only be convinced by a miraculous intervention. If you are perfectly
honest, though literally blinded by the devil and led captive at his will,
God will deliver you, if he has to work a miracle, as in case of the proud,
obdurate, persecuting Saul of Tarsus.
14. Here he certifies that the grace, along with faith and love in Christ
Jesus, abounded in his case. In the Scriptures we constantly see the
superlative preeminence of faith and love, the one Constituting the human,
and the other the Divine hemisphere, in the glorious plan of salvation.
15. “—Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
first;
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16. “But on this account I obtained mercy, in order that in me the first
Jesus Christ may show forth all long suffering, for an example of those
about to believe on him unto eternal life.” Paul was first in official position,
leadership, learning, and influence in his day. Many have stumbled over
this statement, but I see no good reason. Cognomens and epithets survive
changes of character in all human circles. In my peregrination I preach side
by side with saloonkeepers, drunkards, infidels, thieves, and gamblers,
with a number of whose names I am perfectly familiar. We all know them,
and frequently designate them by these dark epithets. While all this is true,
it is equally true that they are wonderfully saved, gloriously sanctified,
filled with the Spirit, and preaching the gospel like messengers from
heaven, God everywhere setting his seal on their labors of love. Paul is this
day the same chief of sinners, playing on his golden harp among the angels.
We will never be angels. Through all eternity we will be nothing but
sinners saved by grace. In conversion you are a justified sinner; in
sanctification, a purified sinner; and in heaven, a glorified sinner. We must
be jealous of our sinnership, as this is the basis of our claim on Christ,
since he saves none but sinners. So long as we are in this world, we need
him not only to save us, but to keep us saved. If we should forfeit our
sinnership, we would forfeit our salvation, as Christ is the Savior of
sinners only. Yet it is diabolical foolery to say we must keep on sinning.
Neighbor John is well known as a painter; though he has not painted a
house since he got rich twenty years ago. Neighbor Samuel is a sailor, so
born, reared, and educated; but he has not sailed in twelve years. At the
time of this writing Paul was the chief of sinners, yet, as he says himself in
the same sentence, gloriously saved, and consequently a great
encouragement to “those who shall believe on Him unto eternal life.”
18. The gifts of prophecy laid down in Paul’s catalogue (1 Corinthians 12)
constitute the enduements of the Holy Ghost, necessary qualifications to
preach the gospel. Timothy had received these with his call to the
ministry. “That you may war a good warfare in the same.” These
extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost constitute the Christian’s panoply,
with which he wages an exterminating war against sin and Satan; the Spirit
serving as armor-bearer, putting in his hand the implement needed in every
emergency.
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19. “Having faith and a good conscience, which certain ones having cast
away have made shipwreck concerning the faith.” A true faith always
bears the heavenly fruit of good works. Faith and works are the two oars
of the salvation boat, in which you sail across this probationary ocean,
plowed with a thousand cyclones, to the bright golden shore of a blessed
immortality. When your faith fails, your works are no longer in harmony
with the Divine administration. Then it is impossible to have a good
conscience.
20. “Of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander, whom I have delivered to
Satan, that they may learn not to speak evil.” Among the many fallen
Christians on all sides breaking Paul’s heart, here are two preachers so far
deflected from the faith once delivered to the saints that Paul finds it
necessary to turn them out of the Church; i.e., excommunicate them from
the New Testament Ecclesia, turning them over to Satan. Regeneration
takes you out of the world, and sanctification takes the world out of you.
So the bona fide Christian is doubly divorced from the world. God calls the
devil the “God of this world.” (2 Corinthians 4:4.) Hence, the world and
the Church are utterly separate and distinct, having no fellowship either
with other, the devil ruling the one, and God the other. Hence, to turn
people out of the New Testament Church is to surrender them to Satan.
Excommunication is the last and most powerful remedy. It will convict
sinning Church members when nothing else will. Ejectment from the
kingdom of grace is but preliminary to their rejection from the kingdom of
glory. Hence, it is calculated to alarm, convict, and bring to repentance
when everything else has failed. We see here that Paul does it for their
good, “that they learn not to speak evil.” When the devil gets them in his
black clutches, and the Holy Ghost shows them an open hell and the
seething billows rolling at their feet, Paul hopes they will take alarm and
repent.
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CHAPTER 2

ARGUMENT 4 — PRAYER
1. “First of all, I exhort you that prayers, supplications, intercessions, and
thanksgivings be made for all men.” We do not pray enough. We do not
hold on long enough to get in touch with God and prevail. James v says:
“Elijah prayed with prayer;” i.e., with the prayer which God gave him. He
lived so close to God as to receive his prayers from him. In that case God
always answers them. The English translators, evidently not knowing the
spiritual meaning, do not render it literally but prayed earnestly instead of
“prayed with prayer;” i.e., the prayer which God gave him The Greek also
says the inward-working prayer availeth much: by the prayer wrought in
you by the Holy Ghost. Here Paul enjoins upon us four distinct species of
prayers; i.e., prayers in the ordinary sense—supplications; i.e., the
importunate holding on to God, like wrestling Jacob, all night;
intercessions, like Moses when descending from the mount of God, and
finding Israel fallen and gone back to Egyptian idolatry. God proposing to
cut them all off, and verify the Abrahamic covenant with Moses, he
throws himself into the breach, and pleads, “Lord, blot me out of thy
book, but save this people.” Thus all Israel is saved by the intercessory
prayers of Moses. God help us, like Jesus, to intercede for our lost loved
ones! Thanksgiving is another species of prayer here commanded. We do
not thank God enough. Get a brokenhearted, despairing penitent seeking at
the altar to break out in thanks to God for convicting him, and soon he will
be up shouting aloud.
8. In answer to our prayers God puts his hand on the kings of the earth,
and turns them as he turns the rivers of water. How wonderfully he turned
about Ahasuerus in the case of Mordecai and Esther!
4. “—Who wishes all men to be saved, and come to a perfect knowledge of
the truth.” God is so anxious to save all men, he gives his Son to make it
lawful to save them. He also comes in the loving person of the Holy
Ghost, warns and entreats every one to come and let him save them. What
more could he do than he has done, and is doing? Yet the wicked blame him
for their damnation. You go to hell because the devil takes you there,
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which he is certain to do if you die in his kingdom. God wills that all be
saved, and come to a perfect knowledge of the truth—i.e., get sanctified;
i.e., reach experimental certainty.
5. There is only one God revealed in three persons. I am a preacher, a book
editor, and a teacher. Hence, a human trinity in your humble servant.
7. “—A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and in truth;” i.e., faithfully and
truly.

ARGUMENT 5 — DOMESTIC GOVERNMENT

8. “Therefore I wish the husbands to pray in every place, holding up holy
hands without wrath and doubt.” This is a high standing in domestic life
required of the husband. Perfect love is the only salvation from the
malevolent affections, and perfect faith the only antidote for doubt.
“Nothing but entire sanctification can give us perfect faith and love, and
enable us to hold up holy hands.” The hand moves responsive to the heart.
Hence, the only way to have holy hands is to make the heart holy; i.e., get
sanctified wholly. So you see this husband, on whom God confers the
supremacy of the home, is sanctified wholly, and will certainly do to trust.
As we read repeatedly in the Pauline epistles, these things are in the Lord.
9. “Likewise, ye wives, in comely apparel adorn yourselves, with modesty
and prudence; not with braided hair, gold, or jewelry, or costly clothing;
10. “But that which becometh women, professing godliness through good
works.” Our money all belongs to God. Hence, we have no right to
prodigalize it in dress or any other way. We should avoid all unnecessary
expenditure of the Lord’s money, lest we prove unfaithful stewards.
Hence, we see gold positively forbidden as a personal adornment. God
says, “The gold is mine and the silver is mine.” He needs it as a circulating
medium. We have no right to take it out and appropriate it to feed our
pride. That is the cause of all of our present financial trouble, which, it has
been feared, will wreck our Government. If the people will take the gold
off their persons, and the silver out of their cupboards, and turn them back
into the circulating medium, we will have plenty of money.
11. “Let the wife learn in silence, in all subordination.” She can well afford
to be subordinate to the sanctified husband described in the eighth verse.
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12. “But I do not permit a wife to dictate nor usurp authority over her
husband, but to be in quietude.” The Greek dictionary gives teach, direct,
and dictate, as meanings of didaskein. It is here homogeneous with
authentein, usurp. Hence, I translate “dictate.” The same word is translated
“masters” in E.V. (James 3:1.) The apostle is expounding domestic
government, which, like all others, must have a head. God, in his wisdom,
has appointed man to the head ship of the home government. But you see
here (verse 8) the man is to pray in every place, holding up holy hands,
without wrath and doubt. That kind of a husband will do to rule the home.
If the husband is where God commands, the wife will never feel the weight
of a feather under his rule, because it will be the reign of perfect love.
13,14. Do we not find here a Divine retribution on the woman for her
leadership in the transgression in consequence of which she is subordinated
in the home? If so, like labor and physical death, it has been so
triumphantly redeemed as to be turned into a blessing in Christ. (Romans
5:20; 8:28.)
15. “But she shall be saved through childbearing;” not as in E.V., “in
childbearing.” In this way our Savior came into the world. Hence, we here
have a terse allusion to Christ, who, as above written, has saved woman
even from the Divine retribution consequent upon her precedence in sin.
So, in the wonderful redemption of Christ, in whose incarnation woman
was instrumental, she is even saved from the curse of subordination,
because the grace of God in Christ through sanctification of the husband,
makes his supremacy a blessing to his sanctified wife. “If they may abide in
faith, Divine love, and sanctification with prudence.” This, with the plural
form of the word, takes in all, husband, wife, and everybody. If your faith
is all right, you receive the Divine agapee in regeneration. This love —the
Divine nature—is poured out (Romans 5:5) in a heart corrupt by the fall.
Like the delicious fruit-trees of the Holy Land, brought here to California
and planted, the soil must be subsequently purified of indigenous filth,
fertilized, and irrigated, or the valuable tree of the Orient will droop and
die. So your heart-soil must be expurgated, fertilized, and irrigated, if the
tree of paradise, panted in regeneration, would prove a success. Not only
must you be sanctified; but here it says, “in sanctification with prudence”
(E.V., sobriety). This prudence, enjoined by the Holy Ghost, is a guaranty
against fanaticism. You must stick to the main trunk line of holiness to the
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Lord, and suffer nothing to deflect, sidetrack, or ditch you. Follow your
Holy Bible, and let your battle-cry ever go up, “Holiness to the Lord.”
Divine healing is all right, but do not make it a hobby. The Lord’s coming
is all right, but do not make it your hobby. Shall I have any hobby? Yes.
The Bible makes holiness a hobby from alpha to omega. All of the
prophets, apostles, and martyrs made it their hobby. Keep your eye on
Jesus, and he will keep his hand on you. Stick to the great trunk to the
New Jerusalem, which is holiness to the Lord.
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CHAPTER 3

ARGUMENT 6 — THE NEW TESTAMENT EPISCOPACY

The New Testament knows nothing about the modern bishopric, such as
prevailed in the dead national Churches of the Old World, a separate and
distinct ecclesiastical order. It was the fatal point of departure from
apostolic simplicity, developing into priestcraft, progressing into prelacy,
and culminating in the papacy. These high ministerial orders, unknown in
the New Testament, are awful temptations to ambition, and enemies to
sanctification; as you can not be sanctified in a candidacy for anything but
heaven. Well does the Methodist simply apply the term superintendent,
recognizing the so-called episcopacy as no separate order from the
eldership. Good Lord, fortify Methodism against the Oriental episcopacy!
So when you read about the bishop in the New Testament, understand the
meaning is simply the leader of those little houseless, moneyless, and
persecuted holiness bands, by the Holy Ghost denominated Ecclesia; i.e.,
the people called out of this wicked world and separated unto God, “to
await his Son from heaven,” thus representing the ascended Lord during
his absence, hated, despised, and maltreated by the world as he was.
Bishop is the Greek episcopos, from epi, over, and skopeo, to see. Hence,
it means a shepherd overseeing his flock. The Latin translation is pastor,
which has been adopted into the English language, and is now correctly
used as a translation of the Greek episcopos. Hence, bishop in the Pauline
epistles, as well as throughout the New Testament, simply means the
pastor of the church, or circuit, or district. Hence, the New Testament
episcopacy is simply the pastorate.
1. “It is a faithful saying, If any one desires the episcopacy, he is seeking
after a beautiful work.” It is perfectly laudable and right in the sight of God
and man to desire and seek after the pastorate as a laudable work, in which
to save souls and glorify God. Aspiration to the modern episcopacy would
be ambitious and condemnatory in the sight of God and man.
2. “Therefore it behooveth a bishop to be blameless.” The code of
Lycurgus, the great Spartan lawgiver, remained in force fourteen hundred
years, thus surviving every other human code in the world’s history. When
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out in life’s evening, he secured a pledge from the people that they would
obey his laws, at least till they heard of his death. Then he went into
lonely exile, never seen nor heard of again, leaving the people thus
obligated to obey his laws forever. Prominent in the Lycurgian code was
the law that no man could be senator till he had passed his sixtieth year,
and sustained an irreproachable character. (Under that law, I fear, we
would have to import our senators.) Here we see the Holy Ghost requires
an irreproachable character, appertaining to every pastor. “The husband of
one wife;” i.e., polygamy prohibited. “Watchful.” The faithful shepherd
must stand on his watchtower, and see that none of his flock go astray,
and neither wild beast nor robber purloin nor slay. “Prudent.” The pastor
is to have a well rounded Christian character, amply fortified against
fanaticism, carnal oddities, and eccentricities. “Orderly.” He is to be a man
of order; having everything in its right place, prompt in all of his duties,
and a good organizer. “Hospitable.” His habitation is the retreat of the
homeless, widows, orphans, and all in distress. “Competent to teach.” The
pastor is ex-officio the teacher of his Church, the school of Christ. Hence,
he is to be so cultured by the Holy Ghost as to be competent to teach his
people the Holy Scriptures. O what an awful delinquency on this
important line of pastoral duty this day! How few Churches are really the
school of Christ! “Not given to wine!” At that time Satan had never taught
the people how to manufacture alcoholic wine. Coffee had not been
discovered and brought into use. The people used wine on their tables, like
coffee and tea at the present day. The ordinary sweet wine was harmless,
nutritious, and reviving; simply the expressed juice of the grape. (Acts
2:13.) E.V., “These men are drunk on new wine,” is erroneously translated,
the Greek being gleukous, fermented wine, the only sort that would make
them drunk. “Not a controversialist.” An old schoolmaster in the
administration of discipline to his fighting pupils made it a rule to hit the
one who struck the second blow twice as many licks as the aggressor who
struck the first, alleging that it was not the first lick that caused the fight,
but the second; for if a boy gets mad and strikes another, and he does not
strike back, the aggressor gets ashamed, and strikes no more. Hence, there
is no fight. So it is the second lick, retaliatory of the offense given, that
really brings up the fight. The meaning of this Scripture is, that the pastor
is not to strike back, but meekly to bear assaults and insults for Jesus’
sake. If he preaches the truth, the ecclesiastical pugilist can not overthrow
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it. If he should preach error, it will be a great blessing to him and to others
to have it overthrown. Hence, like his Master, meek and lowly, he is to
retaliate nothing. “Gentle.” A good case of salvation invariably makes you
a model gentleman. You need not read Chesterfield nor go into the society
of the world to learn politeness. At the feet of Jesus, taught by the Holy
Ghost, you soon become a model gentleman. “Peaceable.” The pastor of
the Church must not only have the peace of God in his own heart, but God
wants to honor him as a peacemaker throughout his bailiwick. “Free from
the love of money.” This is a deadener on the money loving and salary-
seeking pastors of the present age. They have all missed their calling. God
does not want them in the pastoral charge of his Churches. They ought to
read Ezekiel 44 and 1 Peter 5, consider the irreconcilable disharmony of
their attitude with God’s Word, and either wallow in the straw till God
sanctifies out of them every vestige of money love, or go out of the
pastorate forever.
4. “Ruling their own family in the beauty of holiness, having their children
in subordination with all gravity.
5. (“But if any one does not know how to rule his own family, how will he
take care of the Church of God?”) These two verses sweep many a
metropolitan pastor out of his stilted pulpit. The Bible is a plain book,
and, with candor and honesty, easily understood. If a man can not save his
own home, he is incompetent to fill the office of pastor; from the simple
fact that the wicked example of his own ungodly family will rear a
Popocatepetl between him and his people. Despite all he can do, they will
stumble over the profligate example of the pastor’s family headlong into
hell. Let such a man labor as an evangelist, seeking his field beyond the
influence of his own incorrigible and ungodly family. Remember the Bible
makes no mistakes. Hence, it is the inalienable duty of God’s people to
enforce all of these restrictions, and see that the pastor is in full harmony
with the laws of God regulating his ministry.
6. “Not a novice” (Greek, a new shoot). The old Methodists strictly
obeyed this injunction, never committing a pastoral charge to a young
preacher but always sending him out as the junior of a senior pastor. In
these times, in which we sadly see the rapid apostasy of the Churches on
all sides, so fearfully fulfilling the latter-day prophecies, the fallen worldly
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Churches are everywhere clamorous for juvenile pastors, whose
inexperience and worldliness will be to them a guarantee of loose
administration and carnal pleasures. Good Lord, help us back to first
principles lest, having been puffed up, we may fall into the condemnation
of the devil. “What is so calculated to inflate a boy preacher with vanity,
foster egotism, inflame carnal passions of lust and covetousness, and
expose him to Satan’s lasso, as to promote him to the pastorate, thus
giving him authority over people old enough to be his grandparents, and
exposing him to the attractions of the giggling girls and carnal youths who
constitute the devil’s choir! Though he does not fall into public scandal, he
simply apostatizes from God;” thus falling into the condemnation of the
devil, becoming a cultured, popular pastor, but shorn of his spiritual locks,
he spends his life grinding in the mills of Dagon.
7. “It behooveth him to have a good report from outsiders, lest he may fall
into reproach and the snare of the devil.” Satan’s people have more sense
than we give them credit for. In a revival where many were getting saved, I
finally got a hard rowdy in the rear of the audience down on his knees, and
prayed for him. When he consented for me to go to the altar, and bring a
preacher back there to pray for him (as this occurred in my boyhood), I
said, “Which one?” “Bring old Thompson, for he has got more religion
than all the balance.” Depend on it, the outsiders measure up every pastor
in your town; they don’t miss the mark; if you are money-loving, worldly,
cold, formal, and unspiritual, they find it out. What a deplorable pity that
every Church on the globe does not enforce the laws of God relative to the
pastorate! If it had been done, the world would have been conquered long
ago, and our glorified Lord, in the splendors of his millennial glory, reigning
from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof. The holiness
movement is God’s relief train, sent to the Churches wrecked by the
world, the flesh, and the devil. God help us to be true and stick
pertinaciously to the letter of the law! Do that, and you will come out
right every time. The enforcement of the positive law of heaven here
revealed would de-episcopate the great majority of the Churches in all
lands. But God would raise up pastors in harmony with his Word to
supply them all. The Protestant Churches have really gone into the wildest
fanaticism on the subject of pastoral education. If a man has a collegiate
diploma, and passes through the prescribed theological course, he is
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admitted with a clamorous welcome, though he be radically deficient in the
qualifications here laid down by the Holy Ghost through the apostle Paul.
The truth of it is, they will admit him and promote him to a metropolitan
pulpit without so much as having investigated this inspired catalogue of
indispensable pastoral graces. God help you all to study, appropriate, and
do your utmost, by the grace of God, to confer them on every candidate
for the pastorate!

ARGUMENT 7 — THE DIACONATE

The organization of the New Testament Church is wonderful for its
simplicity. The greatest mistake of the ages has been the departure of the
Church from that beautiful original. O that all would come back to it!
Human institutions, alien from the inspired original, have built mountains
on the visible Church too heavy to be borne. Hence, they weight her down
to carnality and diabolism. The Gospel Church has but two offices in her
organization; i.e., the pastorate, Conservatory of her spiritual interest; and
the diaconate, the temporal. The union of these two offices in the same
person is out of harmony with the original economy. It is all right for the
deacon to preach with the evangelistic fire and vehemence of Philip in
Samaria, and Stephen amid the stony shower, as God wants to fill us all
with the Holy Ghost, giving us tongues of fire and turning us loose against
the devil. But the deacon is the official custodian of the local institution,
whose duty it is to look after every temporal interest—the house, the
finances, the pastor, the widows, the orphans, the poor, the meetings, etc.
The Alma Mater Church at Jerusalem had seven deacons; of course, little
organizations would frequently need but one. The diaconate is an office of
most vital importance, involving the very existence of the local Church.
Fortunately, we here have a graphic delineation of the qualifications
required by the Holy Ghost in the deacon of a Gospel Church. While we
deplore the departure of our predecessors from the New Testament
organization, God help the holiness people in all lands to profit by the
mistakes of our predecessors, and ever stick pertinaciously to primitive
simplicity! The moment you create a human office, you open a door and
invite carnality to walk in. Then the devil always comes in uninvited. In
Methodism the deacons, in Bible phraseology, are called stewards, the
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diaconate having been transferred to the pastorate. The Baptist economy is
Scriptural at this point.
8. “Likewise let the deacons be grave;” i.e., sober, sedate, not given to
hilarity, jocosity, or frivolity, or trivial things grievous to the Holy Ghost.
The deacon should be filled with the Holy Ghost, who will not stay with
people if they indulge in vanity and folly. “Not double-tongued”—Greek,
double-worded; i.e., having two kinds of language to suit his company.
When with the worldly he speaks the language of Ashdod; but with the
saints, the language of Canaan. The tongue is the exponent of the soul,
which goes out at the end of the tongue, visits the world, and comes back
the same way. Paul’s double-tongued man is identical with James’s
double-souled man (E.V., double-minded). The sinner has but one soul, and
that is a bad one. The sanctified man has but one soul, and that is a good
one. The double-souled and double-tongued are the unsanctified Christians,
having the two natures in them belligerent with each other. Hence, we see
that the New Testament deacon must be sanctified wholly, thoroughly
expurgated from the carnal mind, and having only the mind of Christ. Then
he will no longer speak the language of Ashdod, but that of Canaan only,
having but on mind and one language. “Not given to much wine.” The
grape-juice in the Holy Land is exceedingly delicious and nutritious; though
ordinarily innocent, the temptation to a farmer in the “land of corn and
wine” to partake excessively justifies timely admonition. “Not fond of
disgraceful gains”—E.V., “greedy of filthy lucre.” All accumulation out of
harmony with perfect honesty is disgraceful in the sight of God and all
good men. Here is an unanswerable argument in favor of the entire
sanctification of the deacon, as this is the only grace that perfectly saves
him from filthy lucre. O how we need such men to officer the Church of
God!
9. “Having the testimony of faith in a clean conscience.” The Holy Ghost is
here powerfully explicit for the sanctification of all the deacons, knowing
that this is the only way to keep the Church loyal to God. If once the
deacons are caught by the devil, it will be very hard to keep him from
lassoing the Church, as he has sadly done in myriads of cases. The soul,
heart, or spirit (as these terms are used interchangeably in pulpit and pew),
consists in the conscience, will, and affections. The conscience is the only
spiritual element that survived the fall, thus constituting a medium through
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which God can speak to the soul. Without this survival of the Edenic
original, man would be hopeless as a devil. Through the conscience God
speaks, convicting the sinner. The will is the king of humanity ingeniously
subordinated, manipulated, and utilized by the devil in human damnation.
In conversion, the will is wrested out of Satan’s hands, and turned over to
God, who subsequently rules the man through his will. Still a terrible civil
war rages in the deep regions of the affections, till everything
disharmonious with the Divine will, and heterogeneous to the character of
God, is extirpated by the cleansing blood, and exterminated by the
consuming fire of the Holy Ghost in entire sanctification. Here it is
enjoined upon the deacon to have a clean conscience, and witness to it. The
conscience is a constituency of the heart, the specific for the generic,
involving the unequivocal conclusion that the deacon must have a clean
heart; i.e., be sanctified wholly.
10. “But let them first be proven, then let them exercise the office of a
deacon, being irreproachable.” As the deacon is the custodian of the local
Church, there is a great risk in his office, lest he let the devil in. Hence, no
one is to be entrusted with the office of deacon till he has been thoroughly
tested on all lines of these specified qualifications. After he has given
ample proof, then he shall he solemnly consecrated to the office of deacon
with fasting, prayer, and the imposition of hands.
11. “Likewise let the women be grave, not tattlers, vigilant, faithful in all
things.” This verse describes the qualifications of the women, who shall be
entrusted with the office of deacon. You see they are substantially
identical with the preceding already described, with the single exception of
“tattling.” As women are much about houses and in company, and thus
exposed to extraordinary temptations in the direction of loquacity,
perhaps the additional warning is given to avoid all gossip, talking only for
Jesus.
12. “Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and
their own houses in the beauty of holiness.” Here we see the same
restriction laid on the deacon as on the pastor. If a man’s family are not an
example and an inspiration to the Church, and thus an auxiliary to the
deacon or the pastor in his momentous and responsible leadership of souls,
such a one shall not be trusted with either of these responsible offices.
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They must be content to work for the Lord without thus jeopardizing the
spiritual interest of the Church. Bear in mind that the Holy Ghost, through
his servant Paul, emphatically specified this prohibition in case of both
pastor and deacon, the only officers of the New Testament Church, that
their families, the inmates of their houses, must be faithful examples for
the members of their Churches, cooperative with them in their responsible
work as officers representing the Church of the living God.
13. “For those who have administered the office of a deacon in the beauty
of holiness, appropriate to themselves, beautiful progress, and much
boldness in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus.” Certainly the person
enjoying all the graces here required in the experience of a deacon,
augmented constantly by the wonderful means of grace incident to the
faithful performance of official duties, will make rapid progress in the
Divine life, growing into spiritual gianthood, and becoming a tower of
strength in the Lord’s war. What can we do to bring the Churches back to
the glory, simplicity, beauty, and victory of the New Testament
organization, disencumbering her of the unscriptural human institutions
which weight her to death? If she would only return to first principles, the
earth would tremble and quake with pentecostal revivals.

ARGUMENT 8 — THE CHURCH, GOD’S FAMILY

15. “I write these things to thee, hoping to come to thee more speedily.”
Evidently Paul’s plan was to spend the oncoming winter at Nicopolis in
Southern Macedonia, and return to Asia the ensuing spring. This he never
did; but saw Timothy no more till they met in bright glory. Instead of
spending the winter at Nicopolis, he was arrested, carried to Rome, and
incarcerated in that filthy old Mamertine prison; out of which he was led
to Nero’s bar, and thence to the executioner’s block. “But if I delay, in
order that you may know how to deport yourself in the family of God,
which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”
The Greek, oikos, so frequently in the New Testament translated
“household,” is the regular word for family. It is used constantly in
reference to Abraham, who never owned a house, but spent his life in a
movable tent; “house of Abraham,” simply meaning his family. The
apostolic Churches had no houses, and never built any till A.D. 150. Since
the devil turned on the Church such a flood of idolatry—i.e., ecclesiolatry;
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i.e., Church worship—I sometimes think it would have been better if the
Church never had built a house. Let the edifice burn down, and the pastor
defraud the bank and run off, the whole congregation feel they have no
religion, and surrender to the devil. Here it says “at the house of God;” i.e.,
the family of God, not the building—for they had entrusted none—the
Church of the living God. So, if you want to know whether you are in the
true succession of the apostolic Church, you have but one question to
settle: Does the Spirit himself bear witness with your spirit that you are a
child of God? If you can answer this question solidly in the affirmative,
you can shout down all the pretentious hierarchies and ecclesiastical
tyrants in all the ages intervening between you and Paul’s sermon on the
Areopagus. Here we see positively revealed the identity of the apostolic
Church with God’s family. We also have the affirmation that the Divine
Ecclesia—i.e., the New Testament Church—is the “pillar and support of
the truth.” Hence, we see the immeasurable responsibility, the illimitable
enterprise, and the ineffable glory of the holiness people, as the only true
and faithful custodians of the truth in all the world, on whom God can
depend to preach it unequivocally and unreservedly, fearlessly of men and
devils. We can not depend on the creed-bound and priest-ridden Churches
to do this work, so grand and noble that the archangels would vacate their
thrones to enjoy the privilege. The holiness people, though identified more
or less with all of the various Churches, are the only people in the world
who take the Bible as their only authority in all matters appertaining to the
kingdom of grace and glory, unencumbered by human creeds and
uninspired authorities. Let any others go out preaching, and they will mix
up their creeds and humanisms with the gospel. Hence, the latitudinous
and longitudinous opportunities and responsibilities of the holiness
movement. The Churches became so corrupt that God could no longer rely
on them to proclaim his unadulterated truth to all the world. Hence, he
called out, and is still calling, his true and humble saints of all nationalities,
sects, and races, and separating them unto himself, that he may make them
the faithful custodians of his truth revealed in the Bible, and send them out
to preach it to every nation. Consequently he is raising up great armies of
evangelists in every land and nation, to carry this gospel to the ends of the
earth. We have this glorious heavenly treasure in these frail earthen vessels.
The available material is so scarce, in proportion to the demand, that God
will take you without regard to age, sex, or race, if you will only meet the
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conditions; i.e., come out of the world and separate yourself unto him, so
he can manage you in his own way.
16. “Confessedly great is the mystery of godliness.” It is certainly great, for
that mystery is none other than the Incarnate God-man, who came in the
lowly manger, and was nailed to the cruel cross to redeem you and me
from sin, death, and hell, and is coming again in glory unspeakable to
redeem the world, taking the devil out of it, judging the wicked, and
inaugurate his glorious millennial kingdom. “Who was manifested in the
flesh.” The incarnation of Christ in his first advent is the great centralizing
event of the world’s history the last six thousand years, fulfilling the old
dispensation, and inaugurating the new. “Was justified in the Spirit.” Christ
needed no justification from sin, but he was abundantly justified in the
sense of approval by the Holy Ghost, who descended on him in the form
of a heavenly dove when John at the Jordan consecrated him to his official
Messiahship, speaking aloud, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased,” thus filling him for the great work of preaching his gospel to the
world. “Was seen of angels.” They called the shepherds from the fields of
Bethlehem to recognize him in the manger; meanwhile hovering over him,
they sang their song of triumph. They ministered to him after the devil’s
temptations, accompanying him in all his earthly life, one hundred and
twenty thousand gathering over Mount Calvary, administering comfort
and anxious to interpose in his rescue. “He was preached among the
Gentiles.” Christ was truly the herald of the gospel to all nations during his
first advent, verifying all the types and shadows of Levitical restriction,
and unfurling the banner of his redeeming love to all the nations of the
earth. “Was believed on in the world.” While haughty Jew and warlike
Roman alike rejected the incarnate Christ, diabolically uniting in his
crucifixion, he was not left without witnesses, many true hearts having
believed on him in his peregrinations through Galilee and Judea. “Was
received up in glory;” not into glory as R.V. reads, as if he had to go up to
heaven to receive his glory. But the Greek says, He received it right there
on Mount Olivet when his body was transfigured, eliminating mortality,
and rising, ascending triumphantly into heaven amid the contemplative
multitude. The moment his feet vacated the summit of Olivet, he entered
the glorious transformation, then and there receiving again the glory which
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he had with his Father before the world began. Thus invested with his
transfiguration glory, leaving the world, he ascended up to heaven.
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CHAPTER 4

ARGUMENT 9 — DEMONIACAL POSSESSIONS OF THE

PREACHERS IN THE LAST DAYS
1. “The Spirit positively says, that in the last time certain ones will depart
from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and the teachings of demons,
2. “Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having been cauterized as to their own
conscience”. Multiplied millions of demons throng the air, all doing their
best to find a home in some human heart. They constantly transform
themselves into angels of light, and pass themselves on Christians for the
Holy Ghost, and on Spiritualists for their dead relatives, thus deceiving the
world by wholesale. A preacher stands in the pulpit, and a demon behind
him gives the message and the utterance, passing himself for the Holy
Ghost. It does not mean that the conscience of the people is seared with a
hot iron, but that of the demons. Hence, their hopeless reprobacy. As the
powers of Satan increase upon the earth in the last days, these demons
literally flood the fallen Churches, inundating the pulpit. What is the
remedy? Nothing but entire sanctification, in which dispensation we live,
and for which we are especially responsible to God. The baptism of the
Holy Ghost and fire burns out all of the jungles of inbred sin and all the
morasses of depravity, leaving the demons no hiding-places, so they can
no longer play off on you. You should always follow Jesus, led by the
Holy Ghost; as these demons have no incarnation, they can not counterfeit
Jesus, but as the Holy Ghost has no incarnation, they can counterfeit him.
The Divine leadership is triple,—the Word, Spirit, and Providence. If you
are true to this threefold leadership, you will never get sidetracked by
these demons. I am satisfied they manipulate many pulpits and rule
Churches not a few this day. I am in the forty-fifth year of my ministry. O
what a fearful apostasy in my recollection! Entire sanctification is the only
attitude in which you can securely avail yourself of the Divine leadership.
If you will not have it, you must take chances among the demons.
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ARGUMENT 10 — EATING AND DRINKING
3. “Forbidding to marry.” Here is a prophetical allusion to popery and
other prohibitions of Christian wedlock. Marriage is God’s institution, old
as Eden, and lies at the bottom of Christian civilization, not only the
source of all the untold bliss of the Christian home, but a breakwater
against floods of sin, which engulf millions in hell. Hence, we should be
careful how we “forbid to marry,” lest we fall under this condemnation, as
well as the Romanists. The Savior is plain, permitting divorce for adultery,
a breach of the matrimonial covenant. This is for the defense and benefit of
the injured party. (Matthew 5:32.)
“Whosoever may marry the divorced woman”
[E.V., is a wrong translation; it should read, Whosoever may marry the
cast-off woman; i.e., cast-off without a divorce, and consequently still the
wife of the cruel husband] “commits adultery.” If the woman had been
legally divorced according to Scripture, it would be all right to marry her.
This erroneous translation has led many astray. The balance of this verse,
4th and 5th, are on the meat question, which is so clear as to hardly need
comment. “Everything is good and nothing to be rejected, being received
with thanksgiving, sanctified by the Word of God and by prayer.” Certainly
we have large liberties under the broad banner of the New Covenant. You
can eat and drink anything you please in harmony with the moral and
hygienic laws, the old ceremonial law of clean and unclean having fulfilled
the period of symbolism, is now transferred to the spiritual man. Of
course, all poisons—i.e., intoxicating drinks, opium, tobacco, etc.—are to
be rejected for moral and hygienic reasons. in the boundless department of
edibles, which God, in his merciful providence, has provided, we must
somewhat discriminate hygienically. E.g., the meats are all too heavy for
my constitution; consequently, as a rule, I prudentially abstain especially
from swine, though I do not Judaize. Do not get into legal bondage about
anything. We live in a dispensation characteristic of large liberties. At the
same time we should all live hygienically, for which no rule can be given, in
view of the infinitesimal constitutional diversity peculiar to different
persons. I am glad I do not know the taste of coffee, though I have rather a
favorable opinion of it. But I find it masters some who drink it, so they are
out of kilter without it. As I want to be always loaded and ready to shoot
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for God, I use no coffee nor tea. Use the good sense God has given you;
live hygienically, do not Judaize nor run into legalism.

ARGUMENT 11 — GODLINESS IS EVERYTHING

7. “Common and foolish fables reject.” “Profane,” in E.V., here is utterly
misleading, as there is no such an idea in the Greek. This phrase is so
frequently used by Paul to these young preachers as to become proverbial.
What does it mean? The word, translated profane in E.V., means common,
rustic, uncouth, uncultured. “Old wives” (E.V.) is graodeis, from graus —
an old woman. Among heathen the women are not educated. Hence, they
are very ignorant and superstitious. When old and in the imbecilities of
second childhood, they become very silly and foolish. These ignorant, silly
people, in all countries, believe all of the foolish stories they hear, and
become dupes of superstition. So, what are these “common and foolish
fables?” They are all of the silly notions, sayings, and superstitions of an
ignorant people; i.e., they are everything in religion except the truth of God
revealed in the Bible and experienced in the heart. So they take in all
humanisms of every kind; everything on the line of uninspired authority—
your creeds, whether written or oral, everything that is not authenticated
in the Word of God. “Exercise yourself unto godliness.” Go for holiness
within and without with all your might.
8. “For bodily exercise is profitable unto little.” You receive some benefit
from physical labor, and it is all right in its place. “But godliness is
profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of
that which is to come.” Labor with your hands, and God will reward you
with a living in this life. Go for godliness; i.e., for holiness with all your
might, looking a million of miles above everything that glitters and jingles,
and God will give you a living and all you need in this life, and a crown of
glory unfading in a world of everlasting bliss. Hence, let godliness be
everything, and God will attend to everything in this world and that which
is to come. Poor Brother B—, living in an Ethiopian tenement, wanted
sanctification in my meeting, but thought he could not keep it, because he
had to drive Dr. S—‘s mules for his daily bread, which were so contrary he
thought no one could keep sanctified and drive them. I told him
sanctification was the very thing needed to drive the mules. So he went for
it, entering Beulah-land with tremendous shouts of victory; drives the
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mules all day, and comes to the night happier than a lark, and says: “O
Brother Godbey, I do believe the mules have got it too. This is the
happiest day of my life. I have been shouting on the wagon all day.” I saw
him no more for six years. I found him proprietor of a rich farm, living in a
mansion, going to meeting day and night, and entertaining the Lord’s
people. How did it come to pass? The Lord took his sanctified wife to
heaven, leaving him with three little children, and not worth a dollar. His
bright face and jubilant look won a rich old maid, who gladly took his hand
in wedlock, and was delighted with his beautiful little children. When I saw
them last, she too was sanctified, and O how grateful to God for her good
husband and sweet children! While I lived for this life, failure and
bankruptcy hounded my track. When I gave it up altogether, and lived
only for God, he wonderfully supplied all of my temporal needs, and has
been astonishing me ever since, not only by the magnitude of his grace for
my soul, but the munificence of his providence for my body. The man
who lives for heaven, gets this world and heaven too. The man who lives
for this world, as a rule misses both, and gets hell on earth and in eternity.
10. “—We have hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, really
of those that believe.” God is, in fact, the Savior of all men; but only
believers receive him as their Savior, while all others defeat him in his
saving capacity. The blackest ghost of hell torment is the horrific
remembrance: “I had an Omnipotent Savior, who came all the way from
heaven to suffer and die to save me; yet I broke his heart by
contemptuously rejecting his salvation. So I die as the fool dieth.” This
dismal ghost will never down, but haunt you through all the flight of
eternal ages.

ARGUMENT 12 — TIMOTHY’S MINISTRY

12. “—Be an example of the faithful word.” Greek is logos, the Divine
Word, and not rhema, man’s word. Hence, Timothy was to speak only
“as the oracles of God.” In deportment—not conversation, as E.V.—the
Greek means every turn he makes with soul, mind, and body. The gospel
ministry takes in the whole man “In Divine love.” This is the very
quintessence of the Christian religion, and must be lived every moment.
“In faith.” This is the basis of all salvation, and must be ever unshaken as
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Gibraltar. “In purity.” This is the climax of ministerial as well as Christian
character. Hence, Timothy must abide in entire sanctification forever.
13. “Give your attention to reading, exhortation, teaching.” The great work
of the preacher is to read. God’s Word to the people, teach them the
meaning of it, and exhort them to obey it. The modern sermonizing was
unknown in the apostolic age. Paul utterly discarded it, lest the faith of the
people might. stand in the wisdom of men, rather than in the power of
God. Really sermon-making is no part of gospel preaching, but a modern
science, cunningly and adroitly manipulated by demons, thus wearing out
the preachers and wasting their time, which is so much needed in soul-
saving labor. The man who preaches all the week, day and night, with the
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, simultaneously making a hundred
pastoral visits, only in the interests of souls, carrying his Bible, reading a
paragraph ever and anon, and studying it as he runs, and expounding it to
the people, will preach infinitely better sermons on Sunday than his
neighbor, who spent all the week with his books, crazing his brain to
manufacture a heterogeneous conglomeration of all science, history,
literature, and theology, with a ten per cent admixture of gospel truth. This
is no exaggeration. I am satisfied I have heard sermons which had cost
much hard study and great investigation, and did not contain one per cent
of simple gospel truth. This is the reason why our metropolitan Churches
are dying by the wholesale, and nearly all now in a north pole climate,
while our poor little Churches in the mountains, piny woods, and deserts
are like blooming oases in the great Sahara. They are served by our poor
little preachers, who never rubbed against a college. Therefore, they know
nothing but their Bibles and their experiences. Consequently they either
have to preach the gospel, or keep their mouths shut. The issue of the
matter is, that these penniless rustics and uncouth pioneers get the pure,
unadulterated gospel, and lots of it; for these illiterate preachers are
delighted to preach all day instead of thirty minutes, and souls flourish like
trees planted by the riverside. On the contrary, the collegiate pastors of
the rich city Churches only preach fifteen to thirty minutes, and have to
give the people a variety of everything they have on hand. Consequently
they don’t get gospel enough to make soup for a sick grasshopper. Of
course, they starve to death and go to hell in platoons, from the simple fact
that a little bit of science, literature, and theology has no spiritual
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nutriment. The shepherd goes out on Sunday morning with a bag on his
shoulder to feed the sheep, all running and huddling nearly starved to
death, many so poor they have to lean against the fence to bleat. Here
comes the shepherd and strews the meal in the trough; but, behold! it turns
out to be sawdust and chips and cockle-burrs, with a very slight admixture
of meal, which the sheep can’t get for the trash; and if they could get it all,
there is not enough to keep one in a hundred from starving to death. The
simple truth of this mournful problem looks me squarely in the face; our
large and popular Churches are everywhere dead and dying of starvation
for the want of the plain, nutritious gospel bread, which, I am sorry to say,
they are not getting. As in my peregrinations I preach afternoon and night
every day, I frequently, on Sunday morning, slip away and hear some great
metropolitan pastor. Hence, I know whereof I affirm. We live amid the sad
fulfillments of the woeful latter-day prophecies, and contemplate with
horror this distressing “famine of bread.” The eye of God is on this
appalling state of things. In condescending mercy he is raising up an army
of evangelists, regardless of race, rank, culture, color, or sex, and sending
them out to do just what Paul here commands Timothy, “Give attention to
reading, exhortation, teaching.” Fortunately these preachers have no
sermons, and few of them are competent to make any, and they have
gumption enough “to keep their hands off the ark.” Therefore,
unencumbered with “dry-bone” sermons, they go out with their Bibles in
their hands and the Holy Ghost in their hearts. They read God’s Word,
exhort the people to receive it, and teach them how to get religion, spend
nights of prayer, and God puts his seal on their labors of love. Do you
know that this is the very preaching commanded in the commission? To
preach simply means to proclaim; not a sermon which we have made, but
God’s truth revealed in the Bible. Satan has so utterly captured the modern
pulpit as to humbug the preachers out of the very definition of gospel; i.e.,
“the dynamite of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” Hence,
where there is no spiritual dynamite to blow sins and devils out of the
people, there is no gospel. O how the dead Churches do need this blowing
up! In harmony with these facts, our Savior selected “unlearned and
ignorant men” when he gathered around him the inspired twelve to head
the gospel army going forth to conquer the world. If he had selected
collegiate graduates, they would most likely have mixed up human learning
with the gospel. All collegiate learning is good if baptized with the Holy
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Ghost and fire; but without it, a bad investment for the preacher, and a
dangerous thing.
14. “Do not neglect the gift which is in thee, which was conferred on thee
through prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery.”
Prophecy is laid down in the catalogue of extraordinary spiritual gifts. (1
Corinthians 12.) These gifts constitute the Christian’s panoply, and
qualify the sanctified for their great and responsible work of saving others.
Here we have an allusion to Timothy’s ordination, which simply consisted
of the intercessory prayers of the older and more spiritual members of the
Church; meanwhile their hands are laid on him. There is an indescribable
and a mysterious impressibility in the human organism, and an indefinable
transmissibility of graces from one to another. When you pray for a
person you will augment the efficiency of your petition by the imposition
of the hand. Successful altar work utilizes the hand as well as the heart.
Human ecclesiasticisms have long ago appropriated the New Testament
ordination, and subsidized it to clerical intrigue. In its original simplicity it
was simply the environment of candidates for gospel work with the
elderly and more spiritual saints, and a union of prayer with simultaneous
imposition of hands for the coming of the Holy Ghost on the candidates,
and the impartation of his extraordinary gifts, the only available enduement
for soul-saving work. Paul and Barnabas at Antioch were thus consecrated
for the evangelization of the Gentiles
5. “Meditate on these things, live in them, in order that your promptitude
may be manifest to all.” The Lord’s preachers make an awful mistake when
they try to fill up their heads with everything. John Wesley said that
sanctification made him “homo unius libri, a man of one book.” So was
Timothy. At this point Satan sidetracks the preachers by wholesale. I
preached fifteen years unsanctified, studied myself almost to death to
make a preacher. In sanctification the preacher died, and I was perfectly
willing to give up preaching and everything else for Christ’s sake. Then the
Holy Ghost so filled me as to make me a preaching machine, a regular
automation, never to stop again. So, for the last twenty-nine years I have
been every moment ready to preach and to die. When presiding elder
twenty years ago, I preached nine hundred sermons a year.
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6. “Take heed to yourself and to the teaching; abide in these; for, doing
this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you.” O the emphasis
Paul lays on the teaching of God’s Word! What a mournful contrast with
the diluted, humanized, despiritualized, and degospelized, misnamed
gospel of the present day—little manufactured sermonettes substituted for
a glorious banquet of God’s blessed, sweet, inspiring, reviving, convicting,
converting, reclaiming, sanctifying, and uplifting truth! Paul here tells
Timothy that it is by teaching the people God’s Word, the way of
salvation, and a holy life, that he shall save both himself and those who
hear him. How I tremble for the preachers in the judgment-day who have
neglected their opportunities to preach the gospel, and let the people slip
through their fingers into hell! As a rule, city pastors do not preach as
much clear, straight gospel truth in a whole year as they could and should
preach in a week. Good Lord, have mercy on them, and alarm their guilty
fears before they face the great white Throne, and hear the bitter wails of
their people as they sink into hell! Read the prophecies and look around,
and you will conclude with me that the woes of the great Tribulation make
haste.
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CHAPTER 5

ARGUMENT 13 — WIDOWHOOD IN APOSTOLIC CHURCH

1-16. Primitive Christianity is all luminous with spiritual wisdom.
Widowed saints over sixty years were utilized in the Lord’s work,
“spending night and day” in prayers and supplications, and, of course,
receiving temporal sustenance as beneficiaries of the Church. As they
spent all of their time in prayer and soul-saving labor, they must be
supported by Christian benefaction. This organization of venerable
widowed saints, unencumbered with temporal affairs and devoted to
incessant prayer, is a lost institution of the apostolic age, which should by
all means be revived. The superficial religion of our day is poorly
competent to appreciate this apostolic institution. Up in the mountains of
West Virginia, years ago, a Methodist Church flourished, and shed her light
over all the land. Ere long some of the members went to heaven, others to
the wild West, and others to the devil, leaving a few to transfer their
membership to other Churches. However, Aunt Peggy says she is too old
to go off to meeting, and she will finish her pilgrimage alone in old Mount
Tabor. The house is neglected, chinking out, chimney fallen down, and roof
caving in, but Aunt Peggy spends the Sabbath there on her knees, often
getting happy and arousing the citizens by her shouts. One Sunday
afternoon, some mischievous juveniles say, “Let us go and scare the old
woman.” Halting in hearing distance, and listening to her supplications,
behold! she is pleading with God to save the wicked young men of the
neighborhood. Smitten by the thunderbolts of conviction, they come in,
fall on the floor, and ask her to pray for them. This was the beginning of a
great revival, resulting in hundreds converted and house rebuilt. Dr. Finney
used to carry around with him a simple-hearted, illiterate old man, who had
power with God to pull down salvation on the people. He would stay in
his room, and pray while Finney preached. The Doctor said he could tell
while he was preaching how the old man was getting along in prayers. As
you who read the “Life of Finney” will certify me, frequently the power
came on his congregations, knocking the people down on all sides, till they
would lie prostrate for hours crying to God. The world gives Finney credit
for these mighty works, when God did them in answer to the prayer of
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that old saint. O how we need to revive our praying bands of sainted
widows in every Church! “The power of prayer is actually unknown in
the popular Churches of the present day.”
2. “Elderly women as mothers, younger women as sisters in all purity.”
God help us all to heed this admonition! I have been lied on from every
point of the compass; beaten with dirt, stones, frozen potatoes, and eggs;
mobbed, threatened with immediate death, and twenty-six years ago hauled
out of my circuit as a crazy man, and repeatedly rejected and forced to
travel; but never was a scandal raised against me. I have been astonished
that Satan did not utilize this powerful weapon against me; perhaps it is
because I have always observed Paul’s injunction here to Timothy, Treat
the “younger women as sisters in all purity.” Do not forget this. You can
not be too careful in your deportment toward young women. Many an
innocent man has been ruined influentially by mere indiscretion.
4. “If any widow have children or grandchildren,” they should take care of
them, thus relieving the Church.
6. “But she who is wanton living is dead;” i.e., she is backslidden through
wantonness, and spiritually dead though physically alive.
8. “But if any one provides not for his own, and especially the inmates of
his home, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” This is a
terrible condemnation on lazy people who do not provide for their homes.
God is so good pouring out the bounties of nature into the hand of
industry on all sides, that almost any person with a very small effort can
provide temporal sustenance. In Washington they claim to grow eight
hundred bushels of Irish potatoes per acre. A person can live well on the
potato and a little salt. This verse covers all the ground, and turns
condemnation on all who do not provide for their families.
10. “—If she has washed the feet of saints.” Here Paul lays down foot-
washing in the catalogue of Christian benefactions. In Oriental countries,
Palestine, Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, they do not wear shoes but sandals, to
protect the bottoms of their feet from the burning sand. On arrival,
hospitality greets the guest at the door, removes the sandals, and washes
the feet. When Jesus was washing Peter’s feet (John 13), responsive to the
remonstrances of the latter, he said, “What I do thou knowest not now,
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but shalt know hereafter.” Peter did know that Jesus was washing his feet.
So that was not what Jesus was doing, but teaching him a profound lesson
in Christian humility, which he could only receive after the consumption
of all his blinding depravity by the fires of Pentecost. This statement of
the Savior, and the historic fact that the primitive Church did not practice
foot-washing, is demonstrative proof that it was not an ordinance of the
Apostolic Church, like baptism and the eucharist, but simply an
impressive lesson in humility, deduced from a long-standing custom of
Oriental hospitality, now paralleled (especially in our northern latitudes,
where sandals are not used), by blacking the shoes.
11-13. These verses refer to the sad fact of apostasy on the part of young
widows through wantonness, whose provided remedy, along with the
grace of God for keeping or reclamation, is matrimony.
14. Here Paul advises the younger widows to get married; as this
institution is a blessed Christian privilege, and a powerful fortification
against temptation and sin.
16. “If any faithful woman have widows, let her support them, and let not
the Church be burdened, in order that she may give her attention to those
who are widows indeed. If your mother, daughter, or sister is left in
widowhood, take care of her, thus relieving the Church.” This paragraph
on widowhood is characterized throughout with good common sense,
prudence, and wisdom. O that the Church would heed it, coming back to
first principles!

ARGUMENT 14 — MINISTERIAL SUPPORT

17. “Let the elders, who stand before you in the beauty of holiness, be
considered worthy of double remuneration, especially those who labor in
word and teaching.” This does not mean simply a ruling elder, as in E.V.,
but the teachers and preachers of mature years, experience, and learning.
The Greek, proestotes, in E.V. translated “rule,” is from pro, before, and
istemi, to stand. Hence, it simply means standing before you in the attitude
of a teacher. Kalos, “well” in E.V., literally means beautifully. Therefore
the elderly brother and sister who stand before you preaching and teaching,
adorned with the beauty of holiness, are to be counted worthy of double
pay for their service. “Especially those who labor in word and teaching.”
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Preach means simply proclaim the Word of God as revealed in the Bible,
while teach involves the deep subtleties of exposition. As the Bible was
written in Oriental languages not now used by any living people, we must
be educated and thus prepared to go down into the dark mysteries of these
dead languages, and haul up the sparkling gems of inspired truth, that they
may dazzle the illuminated eye of the faithful inquirer, exploring the deep
things of God. In view of the time, money, and labor needed in the
qualification to labor in “word and teaching,” the Holy Ghost here enjoins
double remuneration in behalf of the elders, who “labor in word and
doctrine.” In this and many other instances the E.V. bends the translation
into favoritism with ecclesiastical authority, which at that time was so
prominent in the Episcopal Church. But this passage has no intimation of
official rank or prerogative, but simply exhorts the people to confer double
remuneration on the elderly brothers and sisters who “stand before them in
the beauty of holiness, laboring in word and instruction,” while hundreds
of others around, with no costly education nor long years of experience,
may preach the living Word with a small remuneration.
18. “For the Scripture says, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out
the corn. And, The laborer is worthy of his hire.” This verse is
confirmatory of the preceding. When I was in Egypt and the Holy Land, I
saw the oxen, everywhere I went, going round on the threshing-floor,
treading out the wheat and barley and other grains (there never having been
any American corn in that country). Why don’t they use steam threshers?
The iron horse is there, thundering along the railroad. Why do they not let
him thresh out their wheat? The customs of the patriarchal age must abide
there, witnesses to the truth of the Bible, till the Lord comes. Why do they
not have steam mills to grind their wheat and manufacture their flour? Still,
two women sit down on either side of the little hand mill, and grind flour
for dinner. They are waiting till the Lord comes for his Bride, taking up the
one and leaving the other.
19. We have no right to conclude that this is only an official elder, as the
original meaning of the Greek is simply of mature years. As people get old,
extraordinary deference is due them. Hence, we should go slowly in their
accusation and condemnation, keeping quiet till we can prove the
allegations by two or three witnesses.
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20. “Convict those who sin in presence of all, in order that the rest may
indeed have fear.” O how plain and explicit the duty of the preacher is
here specified! In the great congregation, God requires him to lift up his
voice like a trumpet, sparing neither friends nor foes, but exposing all sin,
and convicting all sinners. The word which I here translate “convict,” is
elegche. It is the Greek word for the sentence of the criminal judge, when
he gives his verdict against the accused, condemning him for the
penitentiary or the gallows. It is the strongest condemnatory word in the
Greek language. Do you know that condemnatory preaching is rapidly
becoming a lost art, as very few Churches have the grace to tolerate it, and
equally few preachers the heroism to give it?
21. “I testify before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, that you
may guard these things without prejudice, doing nothing according to
partiality.” You see Paul solemnly obligates Timothy before God and the
angels sent forth to help him, and the people to whom he preached to
secure their heavenly election, that he will guard all these truths like a
soldier standing sentinel, as that is the word here used. It was a penalty of
death for a Roman soldier to go to sleep on guard. Every preacher is God’s
sentinel under the eye of Omniscience and the elect angels standing to
guard immortal souls against the invasions of the devil. Woe unto the
pastor who permits the Lethean slumber so to somnify him that he shall
fail to sound the alarm on every approach of the enemy! “Prejudice” is one
of the meanest things ever hatched in hell. It is from the Latin, pre,
beforehand, and judicium, judgment. Hence, it means a verdict given before
the evidence is heard. I heard of a judge in the Emerald Isle who said he
always gave his decision when he heard one side of the evidence; for if he
waited and heard the other side he would get puzzled so he would not
know how to decide. We have no right to have prejudice against anything,
not even the devil; for God is going to give all the devils a fair trial in the
judgment-day. Prejudice killed Jesus and two hundred millions of his
faithful followers. All the opposition to holiness is the work of Satan’s
prejudice. John Fletcher well says, “Perfect love is an angel so lovely and
beautiful that the devil can’t get his hell-hounds to chase it till he covers
the amiable form with a bearskin.” Then they will go for the bearskin, but
not for the angel; so all the hell-hounds barking on the track of holiness are
just after the bearskin, which the devil has thrown on it. “Doing nothing
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according to partiality.” To this Paul solemnly adjures Timothy. No
wonder our Lord required even his own apostles to get sanctified wholly
as a qualification to preach the Pentecostal gospel, as nothing but the fires
of the Holy Ghost can burn the prejudice and partiality all out of the heart.
22. “Lay hands suddenly on no one, lest you participate in the sins of
others.” This is very appropriate admonition. When they sent out men and
women to preach, they gathered around them, laying hands on them, and
invoking the descension of the Holy Ghost on them, with his extraordinary
spiritual gifts, to empower them for the responsible conflict with sin and
Satan, invariably incident to soul-winners. Before we thus commission
people for responsible posts of duty, we should test them thoroughly, and
be satisfied that they have a genuine case of personal salvation, lest they
prove traitors, and bring reproach on the cause of God. “Keep yourself
pure.” “Pure” in this charge not only includes experimental holiness, but
emphasizes personal chastity, so preeminently imperative in the preacher
of the gospel.
23. “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for the sake of your
stomach and frequent sickness.” While Timothy was an exceedingly
valuable preacher, he had a feeble constitution and a weak stomach. In my
camp-meeting tour I traveled through the great South every summer and
fall, where a diversity of febrile diseases are constantly prevalent, and ever
and anon the pestilential yellow-fever visits the land. When he comes, I
always pay him the courtesy of an orderly retreat. In case of all the other
fevers, I stand my ground so far as possible, ceasing to drink the ordinary
waters, which are frequently warm and malarious, but resorting to the
medical springs, which, in the goodness of God, prevail in that country,
determining the location of almost every camp; having never yet yielded to
the importunities of the natives to use coffee as an anti-malarial. The word
used by Paul means neither fermented nor alcoholic wine, but the
unadulterated fresh juice of the grape, which is nutritious, reviving, and
sanitary. Mark the specification here, “Use a little wine;” i.e., not much.
No person acquainted with the facts in the case can criticize Paul in this
advice. Doubtless the water in that country at that time was not first-rate,
and the atmosphere malarious.
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24. “The sins of certain men are manifest beforehand, going before to
judgment, but to certain people, indeed, they follow afterward.” This is a
plain statement of universally prevailing occurrences. The two most
prominent men in your village are your pastor and your saloon-keeper. All
enlightened people condemn the latter, and deplore the evil employment in
which he spends his life, not only poisoning and killing the bodies, but
destroying both soul and body in hell. Not so with the pastor. All believe
he is spending his life for the good of humanity. At the judgment he turns
out to be a Judas Iscariot, who sold his Master for filthy lucre. A preacher
in Brother Carradine’s revival was on his knees at the altar seeking
sanctification. An ecclesiastic passes by, stoops down, and, putting his
hand on his shoulder, whispers to him, “If you do not get away from
there, you go to the piny woods.” He arose, and left, never to return; for
he was in a fifteen-hundred dollar station. He beat Judas one hundred-fold,
as he only got fifteen dollars.
25. You can hide your works here, and pass them for good when they are
bad; but you can not hide them when we all stand before the great white
Throne.
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CHAPTER 6

1,2. The world was full of slavery in Paul’s day. While the gospel provides
for every relation in this life, it puts the plowshare down deep, and plows
out all evil in due time. Rapidly is human slavery evanescing before the
advancing light of Christian civilization.

ARGUMENT 15 — HERESY
3. “Teach these things and exhort.” These constitute the work of the
preacher. We must teach the people the truth of God and exhort them, in
view of death, judgment, hell, heaven, and eternity, to obey these
momentous commandments, and walk in the light of these grand and
inspiring truths. “If any one teaches otherwise, and does not give heed to
the hygienic words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the teaching which is
according to godliness.” Hygienic is the Greek, so frequently used to
describe the Word of God. While regeneration raises you from the dead,
sanctification cures all of your spiritual diseases, makes you healthy, and
qualifies you to live in harmony with all the laws of spiritual hygiene, so
you will never again contract spiritual malaria and get sick. Heterodoxy is a
Greek word, and simply means “another opinion” different from God’s
plain Word.
4. “He is puffed up.” Spiritual pride lies at the bottom of all heresy. The
man is proud, and wants his own way. Salvation makes people humble and
teachable. You can not teach a proud man, because he thinks he knows it
already. If he does not get rid of his pride, he will have to be taught in the
flames of hell. “Knowing nothing.” This heretic, who will not accept the
plain Word of God as the umpire in every case, is really a miserable
idolater, worshipping his poor little creed, and so blinded by the devil that
he has never received the beautiful light of God in regeneration. He knows
nothing about God and his blessed saving truth, but much about questions
and word battles. I have frequently met this miserable character in my
travels, always ready for dispute. They are ignorant of God, and so
blinded by Satan that they constantly handle the Word of God deceitfully.
They will talk you to death, and say nothing. It is all a senseless clatter.
Nuisance is no name for them.
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5. “From which [these disputes and controversies] come envy, strife,
blasphemies, evil surmisings, and disputations of people, corrupt as to
their mind and turned away from the truth, thinking that gain is godliness.”
They think if they gain a proselyte, they have achieved a victory for God;
whereas it is for the devil, as they really serve the devil, thinking he is
God. The scribes (the popular pastors in our Savior’s time) and the
Pharisees (the official members of the popular Churches) were on this line,
even “compassing sea and land to make one proselyte, and making him
twofold more the child of hell.” He still had his own old sins, and now he
joins them, adding the sin of hypocrisy, and doubling the mess for hell.
Look out for these deluded people! Their name is legion. They make all
sorts of professions, and possess but an evil heart. How can I know them?
If you have much acquaintance with God’s Word, you will have no trouble
to identify them. Their peculiarity is, they are wedded to a poor little
creed, and want to bend the Bible to it. In this you can readily detect them.
They are not willing to take the Bible for their only guide. They explain
away the plain Word of God. They are objects of pity; having been caught
in Satan’s lasso, they are faithfully working for him.
6. “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” If we have godliness, and are
perfectly content with godliness alone, we have great gain, because God
gives heaven and earth. If we are not contented with godliness, we will lose
all in the end.

ARGUMENT 16 — THE DANGER OF RICHES

7. “We brought nothing into the world, because we are not able to carry
anything out.”
8. “Having food and raiment, we shall be content with these.” I am sorry
for my rich friends. They are slaves to their possessions. O how free I am,
possessing nothing!—still get as much as the rich. I am as sure of a coffin
and shroud as they are.
9. “Those wishing to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many
injurious and hurtful lusts, which drown people in destruction and
perdition.” Could you uncap hell, and hear the mournful wails of the
countless millions who have been drowned in the bottomless abyss of
unquenchable fire through the allurements of riches, you would surrender
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forever your cherished aspirations after wealth. I knew a man, already rich,
to kill his own dear brothers, and appropriate their part of the estate. What
will not fallen man do for money? Nothing but entire sanctification can
make you as dead to money as to oyster shells. Hence, you are never safe
without it. Satan is watching for a chance to throw the lasso of money love
about your neck.
10. “For the love of money is a root to all evils.” “The root of all evil,”
E.V., is not in harmony with the Greek, nor with the facts of universal
observation. Many evils come from other sources than the love of money,
and are really antagonistical to it; e.g., drunkenness and debauchery, which,
instead of loving money, entail swift bankruptcy in earth and hell. “Which
certain ones seeking after have erred from the faith, and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows.” The love of money is a wooden
horse carrying Satan’s Greeks into the Churches of the present day. Why
all these projects, causing wholesale apostasy? It is to get money,
scandalizing the Christian’s God as if he were poor, when he is so rich that
he needs none of these things. Preachers and people thus backslide
together, hunting money. It ruined poor Judas, and nearly ruined Jacob.
Look out, preacher, lest you prove a follower of Judas. You do not need
any of these money-raising fandangoes. God’s ravens are not all dead. God
open your eyes to see your members going to hell in platoons! You need a
revival, instead of a festival.
11. “O man of God, fly from these things!” What things? Doctrinal
heresies—i.e., all anti-holiness teaching; for godliness is everything—and
from the love of money. Be God’s freeman, and not man’s hireling. Good
Lord, give us the spirit of Elijah, who stood alone for God! “Pursue
righteousness, godliness, faith, Divine love, patience, and meekness.” Let
us appropriate these beautiful graces in their perfection!
12. “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.” When the sinner
is not willing to be led captive by the devil at his will, he fights his own
fight, and gets whipped all the time. When converted, it becomes a
partnership fight between him and Jesus. But when he gets sanctified, then
he fights the fight of faith alone, sweetly resting in the arms of Jesus, and
shouting all the time over the victory which he receives by faith, even in
anticipation; meanwhile Jesus does all the fighting for him, and gives him
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an everlasting victory. “Lay hold on eternal life.” Timothy was gloriously
saved and sanctified long before this was written, and, of course, had the
life of God in his soul. Yet he was still on probation, and liable to forfeit
that life by apostasy; so Paul exhorts him to “lay hold on eternal life;”
evidently, as we see from the context, referring to his admission into
heaven at the end of probation. A man does not “lay hold on” what he
already possesses. Hence, there was a sense in which Timothy did not
then possess eternal life. What is that sense? Why, he did not at that time
posses it in a non-forfeitable sense. There are no non-forfeitable blessings
here. Let us take God’s Word as it is, and not trust to our creed, or trust
that of another. This Scripture is decisive on this question. Lord, save us
from controversy and creedism, make us to receive thy plain Word as the
umpire in every case, and never bring our poor little ratiocinaton against
thy ipse dixit!

ARGUMENT 17 — IMMORTALITY
“You testified a beautiful testimony in presence of many witnesses.”
Timothy was all right on experience and testimony, always ready to ring
out clear and straight.
13. Here we are assured that our Savior was always prompt and bold on
testimony, even in the presence of Pilate, the world’s ruler. Of course, this
occurred during his arraignment, and doubtless on other occasions, as he
preached three years under the administration of Pilate.
14. “That you keep the commandment spotless and blameless unto the
appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We see Paul and his preachers were
not looking for death, but for Jesus. That is the true attitude of New
Testament saintship. O the brightness it would flash over the gloomy
escutcheon of the howling wilderness of Christianity of the present age, if
they would exchange the anticipation of the old grim monster for the
glorified Savior!
15. “Whom the blessed and only Sovereign King of kings and Lord of lords
will reveal in his own times.” The Son sits at the right hand of the Father,
awaiting his time to send him back to this world, while his faithful Bride,
toiling and suffering, is waiting her Lord’s return to reign in his glory. The
shepherds on the plains, old Simeon and Anna, Zacharias and Elizabeth,
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Joseph and Mary, were vividly anticipating the first coming; yet the time
was known only to the Father.
The spirit of prophecy is still prevalent among the saints of God, in
proportion to their proximity to the Throne, revealing to them the
crowning climax of the world’s history; i.e., the return of the glorified God-
man to take charge of this world, casting out Satan and his myrmidons.
16. “Who alone hath immortality.” As this clause has become the battle-
cry of the soul-sleeping heresy, it is pertinent that it receive our especial
attention. Perhaps you are apprised that the above heresy despiritualizes
you altogether, leaving you without a soul, and simply conceding physical
immortality to the saints only, leaving final annihilation for the wicked.
Thus it brutalizes humanity, depriving them of their immortality. It has
even had the audacity to tinker with the inspired original, the very words
of the Holy Ghost, and change the punctuation of our Savior’s words to
the dying thief, so as to read, “I say unto thee this day, thou shalt be with
me in Paradise,” thus making our Savior commit a solecism, as if he were
not speaking to the thief in the present tense. They are constrained to
make this silly change to save their idol, their poor little creed, which, like
all other creedists, they worship as a god; since the true reading, which I
here have in the Sinaitic manuscript, the oldest Greek Testament in the
world, reads, “Truly I say unto thee, This day thou shalt be with me in
Paradise,” revealing clearly and unequivocally the existence of the thief
after his body was dead, and proving positively from the Savior’s lips the
soul’s immortality. The rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16) both existed in all
the consciousness of their immortal being, after their bodies were dead and
their souls had left this world, illustrating the soul’s immortality beyond
the possibility of cavil, on the responsibility of our Savior himself. This
irrefutable testimony they utterly discard as legitimate proof, because they
say, “It is a parable.” If it were a parable, it is perfectly authentic as proof
of the soul’s immortality, even on the hypothesis of parabolic truth.
However, it is not a parable, but a positive and infallible history of two
literal men, who lived and died in a bygone age, each surviving his body,
the one reporting from Abraham’s bosom, and the other from a place of
fire and torment in Hades; both seen by the retrospective eye of the
omniscient Savior. These and all other cases proving the soul’s
immortality, they must encumber all their wits to darken and pervert, in
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order to save the life of their poor little idol. In Isaiah 14:9, 10, we have his
inspired testimony to the arrival of Belshazzar, the last Chaldean monarch,
in hell, and his salutation by his royal predecessors—rather a wholesale
confirmation of the soul’s immortality. Let us drop back to their
hackneyed battle-cry, “He alone hath immortality.” The word here for
immortality is athanasia, from a, not, and thanatos, death. Hence, it means
freedom from death. Of course, this is a great primary truth; i.e., God alone
is free from death and its liabilities. All finite beings are in some way
susceptible of death and liable to it. God alone is light and life. Yet he
imparts light and life to whom he will. Life in all finite beings is exotic from
the Creator, and not indigenous in the creature. In their helter-skelter
application of this passage to the nullification of the soul’s immortality,
they palm off a lot of occult sophistries on unthinking and uninvestigating
people, thus blinding their eyes, stupefying their consciences, and
degrading their spiritual aspirations, to accept their brutalizing heresy,
despiritualizing them and actually letting the unregenerate down to the
level of the brute creation, and offering the saints of God nothing but
physical immortality in the restored Eden of this world; thus sweeping
away the very existence of heaven and hell. You would be astonished at
the prevalence of this specious heresy in the different States of the Union.
They adopt all sorts of stratagems to scatter their pestilential literature
clandestinely over the land. At this you need not be astonished. It is
peculiar to all heretics, as Jesus said, to compass sea and land to make
proselytes, and to make them twofold more the children of hell. A man
will die for his god. Their pusillanimous little creed is their god, for which
they will cheerfully labor, suffer, and die. The power of religion is
wonderful, and an awful instrument of destruction when in the hands of
the devil. Now let me post you in the adroit sophistries which lie at the
foundation of this heresy.
(a.) They confound life and existence, which are entirely different
things. They treat them as synonymous; e.g., Satan died when he
sinned, and is this day the deadest thing in the universe. Yet his
personal existence is as real as that of God. So all the innumerable
demons thronging the pandemonium and invading this world are utterly
dead; i.e., destitute of spiritual life. Yet these dead, lost, and miserable
spirits have their actual, personal existence, as real as the angels. It is
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equally true of the soul of every sinner, though dead in trespasses and
sins. (Ephesians 2:1.) His spiritual existence is as real as that of Paul.
(b.) It is equally true of this heresy that it confounds death and
nonexistence, which are utterly distinct realities. There is no such thing
as annihilation. Burn a log of wood, and the ashes and gases will weigh
just as much as the log before it was burnt. Annihilation does not
belong to the province of Omnipotence, which simply has all power
within its sphere when it is merely a question of power. There are
some things which God can not do; he can not lie; he can not
antagonize his own character and attributes. If it were possible, I think
it highly probable that God, in mercy, would annihilate the devil and all
his myrmidons and all the human souls in hell. But, unfortunately for
them, they received immortality from the creative fiat, which opened
to them the widest door in the universe for enlargement, achievement,
aggrandizement, glorification, and eternal fruition. All this they
forfeited by the unhappy verdict of their own free will. Good Lord,
help us all to sink out of self, and die to everything but God and his
truth, forever losing sight of all human creeds, and, like little Samuel
lying on his pallet, meekly say, “Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth.”
“Inhabiting light unapproachable, whom no one of men has seen nor is
able to see.” We must keep in mind the glorious Trinity in Divine
unity, not drifting off into the tritheistic heresy of three Gods instead
of One; but still keeping constantly before our eyes the three distinct
personalities of the glorious indivisible Divinity—i.e., Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost; remembering that God is revealed in the incarnate Christ.
Hence, through the flight of eternal ages the glorified humanity of
Christ, filled with the Divinity, will be the inscrutable majesty and
magnetism of the celestial universe, thus exalting our redeemed and
transfigured humanity above all other created intelligences.
17. “Command the rich in the present age not to think about exalted things,
nor to trust in uncertain wealth, but in God, who conferreth on us richly all
things for our enjoyment.” The proud people rush madly after the golden
apples, which Satan everywhere waves in the air to attract their deluded
gaze, which, the moment received, turn to the ashes of Sodom on the
disappointed lips. Meanwhile the humble poor, forsaking all the world and
desiring nothing but God, are surprised unutterably and astonished
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ineffably, not only at the unearthly fruitions of his grace giving them a
heaven in which to go to heaven, but lost in incomprehensible
bewilderment to find their bodies literally flooded with the munificence of
his providence, giving them more than heart can wish.
18. “To do good, to be rich in beautiful works, to be free givers, ready
communicators,
19. “Laying up for themselves a beautiful foundation for the world to come,
that they may lay hold on eternal life.” Paul again, as in verse 12, uses the
powerful Greek compound verb, epilambanoo, which means to receive
unto yourself “eternal life.” Let these two clear statements by the inspired
apostle forever settle all controversy on the problem of eternal life,
revealing positively the forfeitability of that life during probation, and
sweeping away the Satanic subterfuge into which many a poor backslider
has fallen, and been lulled to sleep by the diabolical lullaby, “O you know
you were once converted, and you can’t lose eternal life, so take another
nap.” So Satan sings another tune while he goes fast asleep till the devil can
dump him into hell. Here, in the twelfth verse, Paul exhorts Timothy to be
courageous, “fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life;” i.e., when
he enters the pearly portals. In verse 19 he pours his burning exhortation
on these paragon saints, whose lives have been flooded with holy
philanthropy, thus “laying up for themselves a good foundation for the
world to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life;” thus clearly
confirming the conclusion that none of us receive eternal life in a non-
forfeitable sense till we pass our probation and enter heaven. These
Scriptures confirm beyond the possibility of controversy the great Bible
truth of our probation and liability to fall to the end of life. This truth
should be proclaimed upon the housetops, as the only available antidote to
the devil’s soporific incantations, “once in grace, always in grace.” If this
dogma be true, there is not a solitary backslider in hell; whereas, the very
contradictory is true. Hell is for none but backsliders, Satan to begin with,
who was once an archangel. (Isaiah 14:12.) And as the devils were created
angels, as God never made a devil nor a sinner. They were all on probation
as we are, and, unfortunately, “they kept not their first estate.” (Jude.) By
the glorious redemption of Christ all the human race are born in the
kingdom of God like the prodigal son, and only get out by sinning out.
Hence, it is an undeniable fact that instead of no backslider going to hell,
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none go but apostates; all the devils being fallen angels, and all human souls
having enjoyed infantile innocence, were justified in the Father’s house
before they turned prodigals.
20. “O Timothy, guard the trust!” The Greek word here is the verb form of
phulake, strictly military; as when a Roman soldier stood sentinel the lives
of the army and the cause of his country were entrusted to his keeping; if
he went to sleep, the penalty was death. The preacher is God’s sentinel on
the walls of Zion. “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman to the whole
house of Israel.”
“O watchman, what of the night?
The myriad foe come on to try thee with their might
If thou shalt fail one note thy trump to sound,
I will hang upon these battlements the watchman on his round”

During the pioneer Indian wars, a man was killed every night at a certain
post. After several nights had elapsed, the notoriety of that dangerous
post so spread throughout the army that no one was willing there to stand
sentinel. Hence, they have to call for a volunteer. A stalwart
backwoodsman enlists, and is sent to the post. About midnight he sees a
large hog rooting round among the leaves. He observes the animal moving
about, but getting near. He calls out to the hog, “Give me the countersign!”
He calls the third time. No answer comes. He fires on the hog, and out
wallops an old Indian. So God’s sentinel is to take no risk; but fire on the
innocent hog when there is good reason for suspicion. God help us to be
true sentinels! “Avoiding common empty talks.” “Profane babblings” in
E.V. does not really convey the idea of the original. The above translation
is literal from the original. You observe that Paul repeats this phrase over
and over. Hence, it must be exceedingly important. Every speech,
exhortation, sermon, prayer, testimony, and song, without the Holy
Ghost, is empty. The Greek kenophoonias is from kenos, empty, and
phoonee, voice. Hence, it literally means all empty utterances. Our voices
belong to God, and should only be articulated for his glory. Therefore all of
our utterances without the Holy Ghost are empty. At this point Satan
utterly sidetracks the preachers, and gets them to preach, pray, sing, and
talk without the Holy Ghost, simply utilizing their intellect and learning. I
have known preachers who actually served as a clown for the
entertainment of their members. Whenever without the Spirit, we are
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empty, burning our powder for mere fireworks. “Be ye filled with the
Spirit” is a positive commandment of God. True to that commandment,
you will never speak empty words in the pulpit nor out of it. O how
obedience to these plain commandments would bring cyclones of power
into the pulpit, and Niagaras of salvation into the pews, and “oppositions
of science falsely so-called!” Satan’s people have always been trying to
array science against the Bible. Bob Ingersoll arraigns Moses for his
mistakes on the days of creation; because geology reveals that the earth
passed through long periods during its formation. Hence, these demiurgic
days were not twenty-four hours, but unknown years. It so happens that
the mistakes turn out on Bob’s side of the controversy, as the Bible says
(2 Peter 3:8) that God’s day is a thousand years, thus beautifully
harmonizing with geology. Of course, these were not man’s days, as he
was not in existence at that time, neither were the solar days, as there was
no sun to measure them till the fourth day. Hence, they were God’s days,
embracing the period of an indefinite thousand years, in harmony with the
Hebrew word yom, translated “day,” which means a period of time, as we
say Paul’s day. Heaven in R.V. is always singular, as the translators seem
to take no stock in astronomy; while the Greek is generally ouranoi,
plural, corroborating strikingly the astronomical discoveries of innumerable
worlds, and some of them tremendously magnitudinous, constituting the
celestial universe.
21. “Which certain ones proclaiming have made shipwreck concerning the
faith.” O how cunningly and magnitudinously is Satan this day, using these
“common empty talks” and misnamed “opposition of science” to sidetrack
and wreck deluded millions! “Grace be with you.” See what a sweet, nice
little benediction Paul here gives us, and how convenient when brevity is in
demand.
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2 TIMOTHY
PROLOGUE

This letter is by all the critics located in the Mamertine prison at Rome. It
is immediately contiguous to the old judgment-hall, where Nero sat upon
the world’s tribunal, and tried the apostle for his life, condemning him to
decapitation, the more honorable punishment of a Roman citizen in
contradistinction to the ignominious crucifixion inflicted on aliens. The
judgment-hall is immediately west of the old Forum, where Cicero spoke
and Caesar bled; the Mamertine prison on the north, and the Coliseum on
the south. In a former letter Paul speaks of his plan to spend the winter at
Nicopolis. This the critics believed to have been interrupted by his arrest
“as an evil-doer,” and his transportation to Rome and incarceration in the
Mamertine prison, out of which he was led, perhaps, before the ink with
which this epistle was written was dry, arraigned before Nero, and led
away to the bloody block about one mile out from the western gate of
Rome. When I was there in 1895, I visited all these places, following him
from the Mamertine prison to the judgment-hall, and thence about two
miles through the streets of the city to the west gate, which is still
standing, the wall, gate, and stone pyramid on each side being preserved to
this day, as mementos in the tragical history of the beloved apostle. From
the west gate it is about one mile to the spot where he was beheaded. St.
Peter’s Cathedral, built exclusively of the finest marble transported from
Africa, and costing fifty-five millions of dollars, now occupies the spot
where the ruthless Roman soldier drew the sword and severed from the
body the noblest human head that ever moved heaven, earth, and hell. In
the altar containing the tomb candles burn incessantly, radiating constantly
every tint and hue of the rainbow, resultant from the decomposition of the
light by the many valuable diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, and other
precious stones encompassing the tomb of that eminent saint. I am
satisfied Dean Alford, with other eminent critics, is correct as to the
second Roman imprisonment of Paul. On his first arraignment at Nero’s
bar, doubtless some time in A.D. 63, he was acquitted, from the simple
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fact that there was not a solitary allegation against him, recognized as
criminal in Roman law. This verdict had been given by Lysias, Felix, and
Agrippa in Palestine, and afterward corroborated by the emperor, who,
consequently, released him. Pursuant to his promise to the Asiatic saints
in Ephesians and Colossians, and to the Europeans in Philippians, after his
release he returned to Asia, visiting and establishing the Churches. In 65,
crossing the Aegean Sea, he again visits the Churches in Macedonia;
meanwhile he dictates to Luke, his faithful amanuensis, the first epistle to
Timothy and the epistle to Titus. You see the chronology dates this letter
in A.D. 66; doubtless in the beginning of the winter he had expected to
spend at Nicopolis in Southern Macedonia, where, having been arrested
pursuant to the imperial edict, condemning all the Christians in the world
to die for burning Rome, he is again carried in chains a prisoner to the
world’s metropolis, no longer charged with trivial allegations of Jewish
superstition, but the high crime of burning Rome, the Eternal City, sacred
to all the gods. As Paul was not at Rome at the time of the conflagration,
of course they could not accuse him of having personal connection with it
(Nero himself causing the conflagration that he might lay it on the
Christians and have an excuse to kill them all); but, as a prominent leader
of the Christians, of course he was implicated, and one of the first to start
that river of martyrs’ blood which flowed on three hundred years, finally
arrested by the conversion of Constantine.
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CHAPTER 1

2. “To Timothy, a beloved child.” Here we have the same tenderly

affectionate epithet used in the introductory of the first letter.
3. “I give thanks to God, whom I serve from my ancestors in a clean
conscience.” This is clear profession of a clean heart, as the conscience is
the constituency of the heart, the specific for the generic.
5. “Receiving the remembrance of thy unhypocritical faith, which dwelt in
thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that it is
in thee also.” No wonder Timothy was a paragon preacher! How could he
help it under the benedictions of a sanctified mother and grandmother? The
promises of God never fail: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and
when he reaches maturity, he will not depart from it.” The saddest
phenomenon of the deplorable religious apostasies of the present day is
the relaxation of parental discipline, the collapse of domestic government,
the desolation of family altars, the dereliction of home training, and the
consequent incorrigibility of the rising generation.

ARGUMENT 1 — REVIVAL OF LIFE AND FIRE

6. “On account of which cause I remind thee to revive and refire the gift of
God, which is in thee by the laying on of my hands.” Regeneration gives life
to the dead soul, and sanctification fire to consume all the surviving debris
of the old carnal nature. Here we see that Paul reminds Timothy to revive
and refire. The word “stir up,” E.V., is anazopurein, from ana, again, pur,
fire, and zoe, life. Hence, you see it literally means to revive and refire the
“gift of God, which is in thee by the imposition of my hands.” The normal
place of the charismata, which denotes the extraordinary gifts of the Holy
Ghost, is with the sanctified. (1 Corinthians 12:31.) “Covet earnestly the
best gifts.” The Holy Ghost confers on sinners the gifts of illumination,
conviction, repentance, contrition, and faith, in order to their conversion.
Then in sanctification Christ imparts the gift of the Holy Ghost himself
(Acts 2:38) to come into your heart, not only sanctifying you, but abiding
perpetually as an indwelling Comforter. After this it is our privilege to
receive these extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, which constitute the
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Christian’s panoply, thus arming and equipping us to press the Lord’s war
and save others. We see that Timothy already had the charisma, having
received it in his ordination to preach the gospel. Yet Paul reminds him to
revive and refire it, illustrating the fact that we all need revivals, showers of
life from the heavenly rivers to fall on us in copiously reviving irrigating
floods, and showers of fire from the heavenly altars, consuming all carnal
rubbish that may linger in our way, and quickening us into racehorse speed
for heaven and souls.
7. “God has not given unto us the spirit of cowardice, but of dynamite.”
Perfect love casts out fear, and makes us brave enough to fight a regiment
of devils, while it is our glorious privilege to be so filled with heaven’s
invincible dynamite, that “one shall chase a thousand, and two shall put
ten thousand to flight.”
8-10. “—Destroying death, and bringing life and purity to light through the
gospel.” Life and immortality in E.V. are monotonous. Immortality is
aphtharsian, from a, not, and phtheiro, to corrupt. Hence, the word means
incorruption; i.e., purity; giving us a clear presentation of this great double
salvation wrought by the Holy Ghost in two distinct works of grace, the
one giving life to our dead spirit, and the other imparting spiritual purity.
12. “For I know whom I have believed.” This is a positive affirmation of
Paul testifying to his personal acquaintance with Christ. This is the real
deficiency in the Christian experiences of the present day. They only
know Christ historically, and not really and personally. They know Jesus
like they know Paul and Peter, but not as they know their comrades in life.
“And I am persuaded that he is able to keep my trust unto that day.” Christ
is not only our Omnipotent Sanctifier, but our infallible Keeper till he
comes in his glory.
13. “Hold fast the form of hygienical words.” The very words of God are
meat and drink, and all spiritual pabulum needed in the maintenance of soul
life, and at the same time the panacea abundantly competent to cure all our
spiritual ailments, simultaneously fortifying us against all malaria and
epidemics to which we are exposed in this land of sin and sorrow.
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14. “Guard the beautiful trust through the Holy Ghost dwelling in you.” All
you have to do is to be courageous; i.e., keep saved from all cowardice
(Joshua 1), and the Holy Ghost will do all of your fighting for you.
15-18. We see Satan was busy in Paul’s day decoying away the disciples.
Here Paul reveals a deplorable apostasy.
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CHAPTER 2

1. “Therefore, my child, be filled up with dynamite in the grace which is in

Christ Jesus.” If we will only heed these Pauline admonitions, to be filled
with the dynamite of our Omnipotent Savior, we will all the time be more
than a match for the devil.

ARGUMENT 2 — THE TRANSMISSION OF

THE DIVINE ORACLES
Here is all you can find in the Bible on the boasted apostolical and
ecclesiastical succession.
2. “Whatsoever things you have heard with me through many witnesses,
commit these to faithful people, who shall also be competent to teach
others.” We all have these same inspired oracles, transmitted from sire to
son through successive generations. The great mistake of the age is in not
going to the inspired originals, and drinking in the same identical words
which Jesus, Paul, and Peter preached. Neglect of the originals is among
the sad phenomena of the current apostasy. A metropolitan pastor is not
longer required to be “mighty in the Scriptures.” Good Lord, succeed me
by a thousand exegetes of the inspired Word more able than I have ever
been! This is the great rallying-point of the holiness movement; back to the
inspired oracles all along the line.
4,5. The lawful fight of the Christian soldier, to fight with all the power of
soul, mind, and body, armed only with the Lord’s panoply.
7-9. “According to my gospel, in which I suffer affliction as an evildoer,
even unto bonds.” Evildoer, kakourgos, a very strong word; from kakos,
evil, and ergao, to work. Hence, it means a “doer of evil.” This would not
apply to Paul in his first imprisonment, for simple disharmony with the
Jewish institutions, which was not at all criminal in Roman law. Hence, the
word is certainly an argument in favor of the conclusion of the critics that
he was arrested on the charge of burning Rome, which was a high crime.
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ARGUMENT 3 — THE ELECT
10. “Therefore I suffer all things for the sake of the elect, in order that they
indeed may receive the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal
glory.” The Greek, eklectoi, is really double election. It is from ek, out, and
lego, to select. Hence, means “selected out of the select.” God chose the
seed of Abraham in the old dispensation to be his holy peculiar people
chosen out of all nations the honored custodians of the Divine oracles, to
prepare the world to receive his Incarnate Son, and preach him to all
nations. While they failed by unfaithfulness and missed their blessing, the
elect few—e.g., old Simeon, Anna, Zacharias and Elisabeth, Joseph and
Mary, and the shepherds on the plains—proved true, and received the
blessing. So now the entire Christian Church are the chosen people of God,
honored and blessed as the custodians and propagators of his truth, and
the recipients of their returning King. But like their predecessors, they are
proving unfaithful. But the sanctified, corresponding with the inspired
Word, eklectoi, “the elect out of the elect,” are going to verify Paul’s
prayer in this passage; i.e., “receive the salvation which is in Christ Jesus
with eternal glory;” i.e., enter the glorified transfiguration, joining with
angels and archangels in the coronation of their Lord, King of kings; i.e.,
King of the nations, Satan, their present king, having been taken out of the
world.

ARGUMENT 4 — RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH

Here we have emphatic warning against logomachy; i.e., word war, tit-for-
tat disputation; not an organized debate, which does good. So never argue;
but, like Jesus and Paul, teach your opponents in a loving, uncontroversial
manner, at the same time rightly dividing the word of truth. Lord, save us
from the ignorant quackery which will give the medicine to the wrong
patient, killing instead of curing, casting the pearls of holiness to the swine
of carnality. Unsanctified preachers are utterly incompetent to rightly
divide the word of truth. They mix it all up into a heterogeneous mass,
giving toothless babies bacon and beans, and Herculean stalwarts gruel.
Good reason to “tarry at Jerusalem till endued with power from on high.”
16. But “common empty talks avoid.” Everything without the Holy Ghost
is “empty.” This is really a hackneyed phrase of the apostle. Hence the
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inestimable importance of keeping your soul stayed on God, your heart in
constant prayer, so your words, whether in conversation, sermon,
exhortation, prayer, testimony, or song, will be freighted with the Holy
Ghost. For they shall proceed to more of ungodliness; i.e., freeze out more
and more and get farther from God, till you fall into hell. Once you get rid
of the Holy Ghost, and you are adrift, floating away on the dubious sea of
carnality, whose ultimatum is the bottomless pit.
17. “Their word shall eat as a gangrene;” i.e., a cancer. “Empty
utterances” are the ruin of the age. They will soon eat up the spiritual life
of a Church. We see them all around us, eaten up by these spiritual
cancers. What is the remedy? Fall down on the altar, and all cry to God till
he pours on you the Holy Ghost, the only possible antidote for spiritual
death.
18. Hymeneus and Philetus are examples of fallen preachers, who have lost
the Holy Ghost, the only Conservator of orthodoxy, and gone off into the
Swedenborgian heresy, which denies the physical resurrection and
spiritualizes it. Many heresies emanate from spiritualizing the literal, and
literalizing the spiritual. We must not tinker with God’s Bible; we must let
it stay where he has put it, or we will have an awful account. (Revelation
22.) What about the thousands of preachers in the Protestant Churches
who spiritualize the pre millennial resurrection? (Revelation 20.) They are
certainly semi-Swedenborgian, and close on the track of Hymeneus and
Philetus. If the first resurrection is spiritual, so is the second, because the
Holy Ghost uses the same language to reveal both. All this is to evade the
plainly revealed truth of the Lord’s millennium, and his pre millennial
coming.
20,21. These long verses describe two classes of people in the same great
house; i.e., the visible Church. Some vessels of gold and silver; i.e.,
fireproof, and others wooden and earthen; i.e., evanescent. Then, if any
one will purify himself from these—i.e., “wooden and earthen”—he shall
be a vessel unto honor, having been “sanctified and acceptable unto the
Lord.” This is too plain for comment. The sanctified are vessels unto
honor, represented by gold and silver. The unsanctified are vessels unto
dishonor, represented by wood and earth.
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22. Corroborates the preceding in behalf of all who “call on the Lord out of
a clean heart.”

ARGUMENT 5 — THE VICTORY OF THE LORD’S SERVANT

23. “Avoid foolish and unlearned questions, knowing that they gender
strifes.” The great Spurgeon said when his members backslid they always
became much concerned to know who Cain’s wife and Melchizedek were.
Satan uses all sorts of silly, foolish, and worthless questions to tangle
weak Christians and attract their attention from Christ, and plunge them
into hell. These foolish questions are not answered in the Bible, from the
simple fact that they are not worth answering.
24. “It does not behoove the servant of the Lord to strive, but to be gentle
toward all, competent to teach, enduring evil.” Never argue with any one.
You see here you are positively forbidden to contend with any person. Be
thoroughly posted in God’s Word, and competent to teach the people; but
be sure you teach them in an uncontroversial way. Utterly ignore their
spirit of controversy. Like a Christian gentleman, teach all you meet the
simple truth of God in a kind, frank, and uncontroversial spirit. These
disputers are all idolaters, worshipping their creed, and trying to bend the
Bible to it. They need your prayers for personal salvation, instead of the
cudgel of controversy. Teach them the Word of God; patiently endure all
their abuse for Christ’s sake, and pray for them with your might.
25. “In meekness instructing the opposers, lest at some time God may give
unto them repentance unto the perfect knowledge of the truth.” We receive
knowledge of the truth in regeneration and perfect knowledge; i.e., we
reach experimental certainty in sanctification. John Wesley preached the
“repentance of Christians.” In that case we call it consecration, which is
but a continuation of the repentance we began when a sinner, both being
generically identical; i.e., a giving up; e.g., the sinner giving all of his bad
things (for he has nothing else) to the devil, where they belong, and leaving
him and his sins with him forever, and the Christian giving up all of his
good things (in consecration) to the Lord, to be used for his glory forever.
26. “They may escape from the snare of the devil, having been led captive
by same [servant of the Lord] at his will;” i.e., the will of this servant of
the Lord. (See R.V.) Of course, these wicked disputers have been
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captivated by the devil and led away, but this “servant of the Lord,” in
patience, love, and kindness, suffering all their abuses and persecutions by
the grace of God out generals the devil, captivating them and leading them
away from Satan to God, and receiving a crown of glory for saving them,
which he never could have done if he had antagonized them in controversy.
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CHAPTER 3

ARGUMENT 6 — APOSTASIES OF THE LAST DAYS

1. “But know this, that in the last days perilous times shall come.” It is
overwhelmingly patent to all Bible readers that we are living in the time of
the end of the Gentile dispensation, the last preceding the millennial
kingdom, even now conspicuously dawning on all the earth in the holiness
movement belting the globe, the bright morning star heralding the swift
approach of the glorious Sun of righteousness, destined soon “to rise upon
the earth with healing in his wings,” forever expelling the black darkness
with which Satan’s dismal night has enveloped the globe six thousand
years, since the bright day of Eden suffered total eclipse.
2. “For men shall be lovers of themselves;” i.e., selfish lovers of money.
Never in all the ages were money-loving and money-getting so rampant as
at the present day, when the people are blind to what does not glisten, and
deaf to what does not jingle. Paul says the covetous man is an idolater.
According to that Scripture, pulpits and pews are filled with idolaters.
“Proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents.” O how sadly are these dark
adjectives everywhere verified! How fearfully is parental authority
rejected by the proud and incorrigible! “Ungrateful, unholy.” Preachers in
solid platoons, with the Holy Bible lying before them, have the diabolical
audacity to preach against holiness, to please and captivate their proud,
worldly, and wicked members for the sake of filthy lucre. “Without natural
affection.” Not only are family relations ignored, but murders, especially
infanticides, are common. “Covenant breakers.” It is no trouble to join any
of the popular Churches without so much as a conviction of sin; solemnly
obligating themselves in the presence of God, angels, and men, “to
renounce the devil and all his works,” they never even think of giving up
Satan’s frolics, fandangos, and the pleasures of sin, thus not only falsifying
but perjuring themselves, and sadly verifying the words of Jesus, “Making
them twofold more the children of hell.” “Devilish, incorrigible, furious.”
What awful adjectives to apply to Church members. For he is not speaking
of aliens, but professors of Christianity. I have been personally notified of
a number of preachers committing murder and other high crimes. Only ten
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days ago a Church member in this State was hung for murder. “Opposed to
the good.” God’s true people meet their most terrible opposition in the
ministry and membership of the popular Churches.
4. “Traitors, headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers
of God.” The Church members of the present day sadly verify these dark
adjectives. Despite all that can be done, they will have the pleasures of sin,
showing predominant love of the world, its foolish amusements, silly
pastimes, and carnal indulgences, and actually no love of God, pastors
apparently powerless to restrain them, with folded arms giving way to the
overmastering tide of sin and worldliness.
5. “Having the form of godliness.” This clause shows positively that the
Holy Ghost is here describing Church members, for none others have the
form of godliness. How rapidly we are sweeping to the end! I am a
mournful witness to the sad verification of this black catalogue of sins in
the Churches of the present day. Forty years ago these vices and follies
were not tolerated in the Churches, excommunications constantly occurring
in all denominations, thus keeping the Churches expurgated of these
wicked characters. Sad this day to see them in the majority, and ruling the
Churches! “And denying the power of the same” (i.e., godliness).
Justification brings us into the kingdom of peace, and sanctification into
that of power. Without sanctification, an everlasting tide of internal strife
with inbred sin sets hard against you, liable any moment to sweep you
away into condemnation. John Wesley says: “Justification saves us from
evil habits, but sanctification from evil tempers.” On all sides myriads of
preachers and millions of members, representing the influential
denominations, are denying sanctification, which is the “power of
godliness.” I do not mean that they verbally deny it. But really they ignore
and reject it, some evading altogether, by identifying it with conversion,
others postponing it till death, and still others running it into vague
gradualism, denominated growth in grace, and thus eliminating the very
possibility of the experience, all like Pilate and Herod uniting in the
crucifixion of the holiness movement, God’s relief train, which he has sent
to the rescue of the wrecked. “And from these turn away.” This is too plain
to need comment. It is the positive commandment of Almighty God to
turn away from all religious people who deny the power of godliness,
which is sanctification. John Wesley advised the people, when a preacher
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spoke against Christian perfection, to retire from the congregation, but go
back to the next meeting, thus opening the door of reformation. “Brother
Godbey, would you advise me to withdraw from the membership of a
Church that fights holiness?” If you have not sufficient grace to serve as
God’s faithful missionary (for certainly such a Church is good missionary
ground), to shine and shout among them courageously, holding up the
banner of holiness to the Lord, I would certainly advise obedience to the
above commandment of the Holy Ghost, “From such turn away.” One
thing is certain: if you do not draw them, they will draw you, dragging you
into hell with them. You can not possibly participate in their frolics,
festivals, and worldliness, and keep your experience. Millions of young
converts have been frozen out, and dragged back into the world by
frolicking Church members. If you fall into their trend, you are gone, world
without end. So you had better obey this commandment, “From such turn
away,” unless you stay with them to pray, testify, exhort, preach, suffer
persecution, shine and shout for Jesus, thus using the dead worldly Church
as a missionary field.
6. “For of these are those who are creeping into houses and leading
captive silly women, having been laden with sins, led about by various
lusts.” How signally is this verse verified in the jealous proselytic rivalry
everywhere prevalent among the fallen Churches! For this reason
discipline has become a lost art. They fear the excommunicated will join
their neighbor, giving a numerical majority to their competitor. Not only
have they ceased to excommunicate the wicked, but all sorts of
subterranean stratagems are indulged, as Jesus says, “Compassing sea and
land, and making him twofold more the child of hell.” “Silly women” is a
translation of gunaikaria, a diminutive from gunee, a woman. Hence, it
means little women. As the word is in the neuter gender, it means men as
well as women. Among heathen the women have never been educated;
consequently they are proverbial for their ignorance and liability to
abduction in all sorts of ways responsive to the intrigues of designing
demagogues. Hence, the idea conveyed by the Greek in this passage is that
these uncultured, ignorant, feeble-minded people become a prey to
ecclesiastical proselyters. Certainly this prophecy is now receiving its
literal fulfillment.
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7. “Always learning, and never able to come to a perfect knowledge of the
truth.” This floating element manipulated indiscriminately by the
proselyting sects, they profess and join in every protracted meeting.
Perhaps, in the mercy of God, they sometimes get converted, but instead
of progressing into holiness—i.e., a “perfect knowledge of the truth”—
collapse again, and fall a prey to another proselyter. If they could only
once get sanctified and settled in Christ, their floating would cease.
8. “In which manner Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so these also
resist the truth, men corrupt as to their mind, reprobate concerning the
faith.” These proselytic pastors and custodians of the fallen Churches are
here compared to Jannes and Jambres, those Egyptian magicians, Satan’s
preachers, who antagonized Moses, by the power of the devil
counterfeiting his miracles, turning their rods into serpents. But the
serpent transformed out of Moses’ rod devoured those of Jannes and
Jambres, illustrating the superiority of God’s power to that of the devil.
Satan in all ages has wrought miracles, by ancient sorcery, Egyptian magic,
medieval witchcraft, and is now doing a big work through spiritualism,
Christian science, and hypnotism. The devil is so much wiser and stronger
than men that he can do any amount of works miraculous in human
estimation, because beyond our comprehension. Yet you must remember
that Satan is a finite being, and can not perform omnipotent miracles,
which belong only to God. I doubt not but multitudes of preachers at the
present day, in fulfillment of this alarming latter-day prophecy, are
literally manipulated by the devil, like Jannes and Jambres, and “reprobate
concerning the faith;” i.e., hopelessly given over to the devil.
9. “But they shall proceed no farther.” Soon our Lord is coming to execute
terrible judgment and retribution on the wicked nations and fallen
Churches. “For their folly shall be made manifest to all, as theirs was
also.” Our Lord is coming in his glory to take up his saints, leaving the
wicked world and Babylonian sects to the awful retributions of the great
Tribulation, when the ancient of days will descend in flaming fire and
execute judgment on the enemies of his Son, thus hackling out of the world
everything that will not do for the coming kingdom. (Acts 3:23.) Then the
counterfeit millions in pulpit and pew will all be revealed.
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10, 11. Here Paul alludes to his terrible persecutions. At Lystra, where
God gave him Timothy, they actually stoned him to death; meanwhile he
went up and spent that memorable hour in heaven. (2 Corinthians 12.)
Thus recapitulating his wonderfully eventful life of toil, privation, and
persecution, he exhorts Timothy to be courageous and stand the storm.
12. “And all wishing to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”
The reason why none but the holiness people are persecuted at the present
day, is the simple fact that the devil is not fool enough to waste his
ammunition on dead game. He is as much opposed to genuine religion as in
the days of the martyrs. The reason why the common Churchism of the
day provokes no opposition, is because the devil has no objection to it. He
is perfectly willing for you to take your choice between the inside and the
outside way to hell. But if you go for real religion—i.e., entire
sanctification—with all your might, look out for the artillery of hell; it is
sure to be turned against you.
13. “But wicked men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving
and being deceived.” The ejaculation is vociferated from popular pulpits
on all sides, “The world is getting better,” and they tell us the coming of
the Lord is a great way off. Peter predicted these men, mocking and
scoffing,
“Where is now the promise of his coming.” (2 Peter 3:4.)
I prefer to believe the Holy Ghost, who says the world will get worse to
the end, the Gentile age winding up like the antediluvian, amid awful
corruptions and terrible destruction. They call me a pessimist. I can afford
to be called anything in company with Peter, Paul, and Jesus. They, along
with all the prophets, old and new, are pessimists on sin, but optimists on
grace. All finite beings are progressive, Satan himself no exception, with all
of his people in earth and hell getting worse all the time. Every age has got
worse to the end, winding up in terrible calamities; i.e., Eden with the fall,
the Antediluvian with the flood, the Patriarchal with the plagues of Egypt,
the Messianic with bloody Calvary, the Mosaic with the destruction of
Jerusalem, and Pentecostal now hastening its awful terminus in the great
Tribulation. While the wicked are progressing fearfully in sin, it is equally
true the righteous are making glorious progress in grace. Never did the true
people of God understand the Bible so well as now. Never did the world
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know such missionary enterprise as at the present day. Millions of
martyrs now tread the earth. All they need is some one to kindle the fire.
They are ready to seal their faith with their blood.
14, 15. Here is another beautiful allusion to Timothy’s godly parentage,
which so eminently qualified him for the mighty work God permitted him
to do.
16. “All Scripture is God-breathed.” This beautiful word (E.V., given by
the inspiration of God) is theopneustos, from theos, God, and pneuma,
breath. Hence, it literally means God-breathed, or the breath of God. O
what a wonderful Bible we have—”the breath of God!” While every
translation is inspired in its integrity, really and substantially the message
of God, the verbal inspiration is only in the original; i.e., the Greek of the
New and the Hebrew of the Old Testament. The holiness movement is
destined to inaugurate a new era in the appreciation of the originals. Every
young preacher should go straight to the Greek Testament and master it.
As the Old Testament is all repeated and focalized in the New, and we are
living under the New Testament dispensation, therefore the Greek of the
New Testament is infinitely more important than the Hebrew of the Old.
If possible, master and utilize the Greek Testament, giving sufficient
attention to the Hebrew to handle it with dictionaries. O what a blessed
privilege to read the very words which God breathed into the inspired
writers, and enabled them to transmit to us! “Profitable for teaching.” The
school of Christ, with the Bible as the only textbook, is next door to
heaven. It is a blighting shame that the Bible is not studied and taught in
every Church. God says, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” How
sadly do we see this truth verified on all sides! Outside of the holiness
movement, Church members are shamefully ignorant of God’s Word, and
the fewest number of preachers competent to teach it, in consequence of
their deplorable experimental deficiencies, since the Bible is strictly and
preeminently an experimental book, which must go through our hearts if
we ever walk through the city of God. “For conviction.” Without
conviction there can be no conversion, sanctification, nor anything else but
damnation. Here is the radical deficiency in the popular ministry. As a
rule, it is destitute of conviction, and very convenient for Satan to use as a
greased plank over which to slide the people into hell. The true gospel, if
faithfully preached, is the most stirring thing in the universe. It will burn
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people out or in; i. e, either bring them to God, or drive them away. When
did Paul ever preach at any place without raising a row? “For correction”
The Bible is the straightedge by which every human life is to be regulated
In architecture everything has to come to the straight, or be thrown out.
Hence, God’s Word is the effectual cure for all sin and heresy. “For
instruction in righteousness:
17. “In order that the man of God may be perfect, having been thoroughly
perfected unto every good work.” “Perfect” is from the Latin facio, to
make, and per, complete. Christ came to destroy the work of the devil,
which is sin, thus restoring man to the image and likeness of God, and
preparing him to do his will on earth as the angels do it in heaven. Hence,
Christian perfection removes everything out of the heart impedimental to
our full efficiency in the service of the Lord. We have Churches full of
people dumb as the pews they encumber, deluded by the diabolical
falsehood that they are excusable for their silly dumbhood and utter
worthlessness in the Lord’s vineyard; meanwhile the Holy Spirit is grieved
because they will not let him wholly sanctify them, and give them tongues
of fire, thus making their religion enjoyable to themselves, profitable to
others, and glorifying to God. Thus this beautiful grace of perfection
qualifies you for every good work by eliminating all hindrances out of your
heart, forever crowning every duty with delight.
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CHAPTER 4

ARGUMENT 7 — THE ADVENT AND KINGDOM OF OUR LORD

1. “I testify before God and Christ Jesus, who is about to judge the living
and the dead, both his appearing and his kingdom.” The E.V. signally fails
to bring out the great salient truth of this verse, “His appearing and his
kingdom” are both in the accusative case (objective in English), the direct
object of “testify.” Hence, we have the clear and simple statement of the
apostle that he testifies both the appearing and kingdom of his ascended
Lord. It is an irrefutable argument in favor of the millennium, inaugurated
and administered by the personal Christ, in contradistinction to the
millennium of the popular pulpits brought in by human agency and
impersonal influences. The great fact of the Bible is, the world is not going
to gradually improve until it reaches the millennium; but, as we see in these
prophecies, it will deteriorate continually and ripen for destruction. The
progression preached from the pulpits is nothing but the evolution of
Ingersoll infidelity. The people are unwilling for Bob to preach in their
pulpits, but they receive appreciatively Bob’s doctrine from their own
pastors. The Bible millennium is to be the work of the glorified Jesus when
he comes, as this verse says, to execute judgment, taking the devil and his
incorrigible myrmidons out of the world, and girdling the globe with his
glorious kingdom, to shine and shout forever.
2. “Preach the Word, be instant in season and out of season, convict,
exhort, rebuke, with all long-suffering and teaching.” This verse is only
separated from the preceding by a comma. Hence, this burning injunction
of Paul to Timothy is to preach the appearing and the kingdom of his
Lord, everywhere notifying the Lord is coming in judgment to set up his
kingdom.
3. “For the time will come when they will not endure hygienic teaching.”
This word “hygienic” is constantly used by the Holy Ghost where E.V.
has “sound.” It is a sanitary word, and means soul health. Regeneration
gives life to the dead sinner, and sanctification applies the precious blood,
the infallible panacea of all human ills, to the soul, curing its hereditary
disease, and imparting perfect spiritual health. Hence, this “sound
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doctrine” simply means holiness. You all know we are living in the last
days, because this awful prophecy is everywhere now being fulfilled, in
the alarming fact that the popular Churches will not permit the clear and
forcible preaching of entire sanctification. This mournful fulfillment of
latter-day prophecy has really come on the world in the last twenty years;
so look out for His “appearing and His kingdom.” “But according to their
own lust they will heap to themselves teachers, itching as to their hearing.”
It is not, as you conclude from E.V., the teachers who have itching ears,
but the people. Their ears are itching for nice smooth eloquence, which will
not dig them up, and flattery to feed their vanity, really Satan’s trickery
for their damnation. Since the great apostasy in the last forty years, the
time has already arrived when the wicked people of the Churches, by their
money as well as their numerical majority, rule them, dictating the
character of their pastor, and thus literally fulfilling this awful prophecy.
Satan’s deluded votaries in all ages have ignorantly fulfilled the prophecies.
It is preeminently true nowadays, “And they shall be turned unto fables.”
Everything except the pure “God-breathed” truth of the Bible is fabulous.
That is precisely what is now going on. The nice little sermonettes
preached by the popular pastors are mainly fabulous, having scarcely a
scintillation of solid gospel truth. The people who are not right with God
are not willing to get right, despise the lightning truth of God, which rives
into atoms the man of sin. Hence, they demand comfort from the pulpit,
which can only be given at the cost of their damnation. God’s truth makes
good people feel good, and bad people feel bad; while Satan’s lies make
bad people feel good, and good people feel bad. This solves the problem,
and explains the awful fulfillment of this alarming prophecy; i.e., wicked
people rule the Churches, “heaping to themselves teachers (itching as to
their hearing);” i.e., eager for the preacher to say something pleasing, thus
helping the devil to blind them till they drop into hell.
5. “Be sober in all things, suffer affliction, do the work of an evangelist,
make full proof of thy ministry.” We see that Paul believed in evangelistic
work, notwithstanding multiplied thousands at the present day, who claim
to be his gospel sons, are violently opposed to it. Preachers who do not
preach the whole truth, don’t want anybody else to preach it; from the
simple fact that it takes their own heads off. There is no opposition to
evangelists if they do not preach sanctification. Hence, all this opposition
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to evangelists is simply Satan’s trick to keep the gospel out of the pulpit
and feed the people on fables.
6. “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at
hand.” Paul’s valedictory is beautiful, brief, and profoundly significant. I
believe the critics are correct in locating his martyrdom about A.D. 68,
instead of 66 (E.V.), subsequent to the conflagration, and initiatory to the
great imperial persecution, which rolled in rivers of blood three hundred
years.
7. “I have fought the beautiful fight.” How true this dying testimony! From
the time of his sanctification, at the close of his three years’ exile with God
in Arabia, when he “was pleased to reveal his Son in him” (Galatians 1:15),
Paul was never known to flicker on the battlefield. Truly, he lived a hero
and died a martyr. “I have finished my course.” His peregrinations over
different countries of Asia and Europe, despite intervening seas, robbers,
and persecutions, were really wonderful, considering the absence of public
conveyance except their frail barks, steamless and compassless, floating
over the seas, at the mercy of the winds and caprice of the billows. “I have
kept the faith.” Amid every conceivable discouragement his own nation
tracking him like bloodhounds, Gentile princes and potentates as well as
the roaring rabble arrayed against him, his faith never wavered an iota from
the moment the light of the glorified Savior flashed on him as he journeyed
to Damascus till he laid down his neck on Nero’s block. Paul is doubtless
in all respects the champion of the world’s history, a gigantic
intellectualist, a double graduate, with a miraculous conversion and a
sanctification which left not a vestige of Adam the first. In labors he was
indefatigable, in sufferings invincible, and in heroism he casts upon the
escutcheon of all ages a brilliancy throwing into eclipse the master spirits
of the world’s battlefields.
8. “Finally there is laid up or me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord
the righteous Judge will give me in that day, and not to me only, but to all
them that love his appearing.” Paul looked constantly for Christ to come
to the end of his life, illustrating the true attitude of Saintship; i.e., that of
constant expectancy. Does not Christ come in death? He did not in case of
Stephen, but stood and saw him leave the body and come to him. He sent
the angels for Lazarus. Here we see a crown of righteousness awaits all
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who (as the Greek reads) “have loved and still love his appearing more
and more.” Would you really be delighted to have the Lord return to the
earth this day? Would you run to meet him with a shout? The clear
affirmative answer to this question is transcendently important, if you
would join Paul in the blood washed throng beyond the stars. He is
anxious to see Timothy, but doubtless saw him no more till he joined him
on the golden shore. As this is the last word we hear from him, evidently
Luke, his faithful amanuensis, would have written again if he had lived. A
part of the punishment of the martyrs in all ages was the suddenness of
their execution. Perhaps Paul’s head was off before the ink of this epistle
was dry. In that they had no factories, and garments were scarce and
valuable, a winter in that filthy old Mamertine prison will be awful. Hence,
he wants the cloak he left at Troas, away over the sea. But he spent that
winter in heaven. “And the books, especially the parchments;” i.e., the raw
hides. These were the Scriptures. When Tischendorf found this wonderful
Sinaitic manuscript I hold in my hand, in 1859, it was a roll of leather
perhaps fifteen hundred years old.
4. “Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil; the Lord will reward him
according to his works.” A simple statement of fact, and not an
imprecation, as E.V., exhibiting, as alleged by infidels, a retaliatory spirit.
16. “In my first trial no one stood by me, but all left me; may it not be
charged unto them:
17. “But the Lord stood by me, and empowered me, in order that through
me the ministry may be fulfilled, and all the Gentiles may hear, and I was
delivered out of the mouth of the lion.” As they were not allowed to cast a
Roman citizen to a wild beast, the presumption is, that lion here
symbolizes Nero. The preaching here mentioned as following his first trial
favors the theory of the two Roman imprisonments. That would locate the
first trial away back in 63, and on the hypothesis of his martyrdom in 68,
it gives about five years for preaching in Asia and Europe. The
presumption is, he was led from his second trial on criminal charge
concerning the conflagration, directly to the executioner’s block.
18. Paul gloriously triumphs to the end. “I left Trophimus in Miletum
sick.” God healed the old king of Malta, and many others there and
elsewhere, through the ministry of Paul, but not Trophimus. But all do not
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get healed. If they did, no one would get to heaven. I have frequently been
sick, and had faith to be healed, and was healed. If He tarrieth, the time is
at hand when I will have no faith to be healed. Then I will get to go to
heaven. As your faith is, so be it unto you, is as true of the body as the
soul. We are saved by the grace of faith, and healed by the gift of faith (1
Corinthians 12), which is in me by the sovereign discriminating providence
of God, and subsidiary to the spiritual interest. A Methodist in Kentucky
fell at the cradle of his dying boy baby, and cried aloud to God to spare his
life. Twenty years afterward, when he saw the sheriff tie the rope round
his neck, he realized his sad mistake in not letting him go to heaven in his
infancy. We should always crown our petition for bodily healing with,
“Thy will be done.” It may be God’s good time for us to go to heaven. Our
perfect bodily healing is postponed till the transfiguration. Yet God, in his
mercy, patches us up to finish our work. But let us remember, heaven is
infinitely better than health.

APOLOGUE

These epistles to Timothy, Paul’s favorite preacher, are of infinite value to

all preachers, especially pastors, defining duty and responsibility in their
diversified bearings. They are also of infinite utility to all deacons of
Churches (among Methodists called stewards), specifying their
qualifications and defining their responsibilities; and, through these offices,
the constitution of every local Church relative both to the spiritual and
temporal economy.
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TITUS
PROLOGUE

This epistle was written about the time of First Timothy, during Paul’s
last visit to the Churches of Macedonia. We have no postscripts in the
Greek, those in English all being spurious. The presumption is, both of
these letters were written at Philippi, Thessalonica, or Berea, more
probably at the latter, as on his arrival in Greece he would be anxious first
to visit and preach to all of the Churches. Titus was appointed by Paul
bishop; i.e., pastor, of Crete, the largest island in the Grecian Archipelago,
and belonging to Greece.
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CHAPTER 1

“Paul the slave of God;” i.e., his love slave, as all sanctified people are;
sinners being Satan’s slaves, the sanctified God’s love slaves, and the
unsanctified hired servants in the kingdom of God; e.g., preachers for
salary, etc., till sanctification blow the jubilee trumpet, and the faithful
have their ears bored—i.e., old Adam crucified—becoming God’s love
slaves, to abide with him forever, and the rest backsliding, because they
reject holiness, go back into the devil’s kingdom, and make their bed in hell.
“An apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of the elect of God.” The
Greek, eklectoi, is from lego, to choose, and ek, out. Hence, it means the
chosen out of the chosen. All Christians are chosen out of the world; but
God’s elect are chosen out from the Christians to be his peculiar people,
the Bride of his Son. This word by itself settles the second blessing. “And
the perfect knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness.” This
perfect knowledge or experimental certainty we receive in sanctification.

ARGUMENT 1 — THE PASTORATE

5. “Therefore I left thee in Crete, that thou mayest set in order the
remaining things, and establish elders in every city, as I have commanded
thee.” Here we see that Paul gave Titus a general superintendency in the
Island of Crete, like Wesley had in the British Isles, and such as he gave
Asbury in America, and the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1876 gave
William Taylor in Africa. These elders are identical with bishop in the
seventh verse, “elder” being no official personage denotative of seniority
and responsibility. The “elder” may be a pastor, a deacon, or a layman;
however, in this case those mentioned in verse 5 are all bishops; i.e.,
pastors appointed by Titus.
6. “If any one is irreproachable.” Here we see that the Pauline
qualifications of a pastor in Crete are identical with those in Asia under the
superintendency of Timothy. “The husband of one wife.” As those Gentile
converts had all spent their lives in heathenism, where polygamy always
did prevail and is common to this day, it was very pertinent to give
straight deliverances, corrective of that evil. “Having faithful children, not
in accusation of riot nor unruly.” Here we see, as in 1 Timothy, the pastor
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of a Christian Church is positively required to have an exemplary home.
This restriction, if enforced (and certainly it ought to be, for the Bible
makes no mistakes), would exclude thousands of pastors at the present
day, the incorrigible, reckless, and flagitious deportment of whose ungodly
families is an impassable mountain between him and the salvation of
others. Since the home is the nucleus of the Church, which is worse than a
failure without home religion, we are not astonished at this restriction laid
on the pastorate by the Holy Ghost. I have known whole Churches
fearfully led hellward, and the pastor’s hands tied by the follies and vices
of his unsaved family. If such a man can not be pastor, shall he quit
preaching? By no means. Let him take his own home for his missionary
field, and preach there until he gets them all saved; then he can enter the
pastorate. Suppose his work in his own home proves an utter failure?
Then let him, like John Wesley, leave his home, turn evangelist, and go
preaching to the ends of the earth.
7. “For it behooveth the bishop [i.e., the pastor] to be irreproachable as a
steward of God.” This restriction certainly would exclude the use of
tobacco, which is now condemned by all physicians as one of the rankest
narcotic poisons on the globe, the progenitor of many dangerous bodily
ailments, such as heart-disease and paralyis. At the same time it stupefies
the brain, benumbs the sensibilities, and conduces to intolerable filthiness.
What an awful example, a tobacco-using pastor to boys growing up under
his ministry! I am glad the Methodist Episcopal Church has light on this
important item, excluding all such from her itinerancy. “Not self-willed;”
i.e., his will must he turned over to God, and lost in the Divine will, like
the Sacramento River in the Pacific Ocean. You see plainly that the
pastoral qualifications involve nothing less than the sanctified experiences,
destroying the taste of tobacco and all other filthy narcotics, and utterly
and eternally sinking the human will into the Divine. “Not irascible.” The
meaning of this Greek word is a person whom you can not make mad. I
have often seen pastors get mad in the pulpit. Bishop Bowman says this
was his trouble till he got sanctified thirty-five years ago. He says he was
personally conscious when his temper was taken out by the roots and
utterly destroyed. Certainly the man that has not the complete victory
over evil tempers is utterly incompetent to lead others in the way of
purity and heaven. “Not a wine-drinker.” In Palestine and other Oriental
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countries (as coffee had not yet come into use) wine was a regular potable
used while eating. Unfermented and free from alcohol, it was the simple,
nutritious, and reviving grape juice. Of course, this restriction does not
disqualify the pastor to use the grape juice as a potable, a substitute for
coffee or milk; but it simply excludes the use of wine as a beverage. “Not, a
controvertist” (E.V., “no striker”); i.e., the pastor is not to strike back; he
resents nothing; he is not retaliatory, but seeks only the conquest of truth
and love. He argues with no man, but in meekness and love teaches all the
precious truth of God in an uncontroversial way. “Not fond of filthy lucre.”
The New Testament pastor is gloriously saved from the love of money,
the idolatry of covetousness having been thoroughly sanctified out of him.
If poor Judas could only have survived the terrible temptations of “filthy
lucre,” and received the pentecostal baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire,
burning all the money love out of his heart, he would now, with Paul and
Peter, be playing on his golden harp. You see the pastor must be saved
from “filthy lucre.” In that case he is as dead to his salary, as Elijah in the
cave fed by the ravens.
8. “But hospitable.” The Greek says, “loving the stranger.” He is the
reliable friend of the widow, the orphan, the homeless, the beggar, and the
friendless. “Loving the good;” i.e., he loves all good people
indiscriminately, regardless of nationality, race, sect, or color. “Prudent.”
An imprudent man will not do for pastor. He must not only have genuine
Holy Ghost religion, but he must have good, solid, horse sense, and an
ample supply of it. “Righteous.” This word means that he must have a
clear experience of personal justification, consciously attested by the
witness of the Spirit. “Holy.” Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit,
by which he makes you holy; while holiness is the experience received in
sanctification, and lived ever afterward in earth and heaven. Hence, you see
that God’s law, given in the New Testament, positively requires every
pastor to be in the enjoyment of the sanctified experience. “Temperate.”
The Greek of this word is infinitely stronger than the English. It is egkrate,
from ego, I, and kratos, government. Thence, it means self-government in
harmony with the law of God, walking in all the light of his revealed Word,
and exemplifying the same to all who come within his influence.
9. “Holding fast to that which is according to the doctrine of the faithful
Word, in order that he may be able both to exhort with healthy teaching,
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and to convict the opposers.” Here we see the pastor is to believe and teach
all of God’s Word, utterly dead to his creed. He is contending earnestly for
the “faith once delivered to the saints,” preaching the whole gospel if the
sword cuts off every head in his pastorate. He is to exhort the people with
hygienical (Greek) teaching; i.e., the teaching qualified to give them perfect
soul-health, which is none other than entire sanctification. Regeneration
gives life to the dead soul, and sanctification cures all hereditary diseases.
Medicine is for the living, as the dead can not take it. Hence, you must be
raised from the dead, before you can be sanctified wholly. Children must
be born before they can be treated for hereditary diseases. With the power
of God’s truth, he is to “convict the opposers.” The Greek, elenchos,
“conviction,” constantly used in the New Testament, means the sentence
of the criminal judge for the execution of the culprit. O how fearfully
delinquent the pastors at this point! As a rule, there is no conviction in the
popular pulpits. How awful to let the people slip through their fingers
into hell by wholesale! Why does not every Conference, Presbytery, and
Association in all the land enforce the law of God Almighty, here laid
down for the constitution and regulation of the pastorate? Echo answers,
Why? They have run so long and gotten such a multitude of unscriptural
pastors on their hands that the enforcement of the law would produce a
revolution, eliminating the great wing of the pastorate, who would simply
organize, independently of every voice crying out for God’s Word, and go
on their unscriptural way. As the pastorate is the most important office in
the Church, no one has a just claim to New Testament orthodoxy that does
not adhere to the above restrictions revealed by the Holy Ghost through
inspired Paul in these pastoral epistles to Timothy and Titus. The holiness
people must watch and pray, lest Satan derail the movement at this
important point. Certainly the enterprise is a failure if we do not go back
to New Testament simplicity, and there abide. The departure of the
Apostolic Church from primitive truth and simplicity, revealed in the New
Testament, has developed the horrors of Romanism. The heroic spirits of
Luther, Bunyan, Knox, and Wesley earnestly sought primitive truth and
purity. But mournful is the confession, when we are forced to recognize
the ingress of Babylon’s fallen daughters, so influential in all the Protestant
Churches.
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10. “For there are many incorrigible empty talkers and egotists, especially
those of the circumcision,
11. “Whose mouths it behooveth to stop, who overturn whole families,
teaching those things which it doth not behoove for the sake of disgraceful
gain.” In the apostolic age Judaism was the popular Church; though
Divinely originated and honored with the holy lives and triumphant deaths
of sainted myriads, having degenerated into dead formality and hollow
hypocrisy and lost the Spirit and the power, even rejecting and crucifying
her own Christ. “Empty talkers.” All sermons, exhortations, prayers,
testimonies, and songs without the Holy Ghost are empty, “sounding
brass and tinkling cymbals.” “Disgraceful gain” means not only the
accumulation of money and property, but numbers and influence, which
has always been the climacteric policy of carnal preachers and fallen
Churches. “Misery loves company.” Godless people, religious and secular,
go for the crowd.
12. “A certain one of them, their own prophet, said, The Cretans are
always liars, evil beasts, slow stomachs.” The native Cretan prophet of a
bygone age here alluded to, is believed to have been Maimonides, the most
celebrated philosopher in the history of the island. “The Cretans are
always liars.” When I was in Athens, Greece, in 1895, an English minister
told me that they were awful liars. The Cretans are the same people. “Evil
beasts.” The Greek here is the word for bloodthirsty, carnivorous wild
beasts, like lions, bears, leopards, and hyenas. Hence, this phrase means
the wicked, unconverted people. “Slow stomachs.” The stomach is the
great laboratory of the human system. When it is “slow” and inactive,
indigestion, dyspepsia, biliousness, headache, and a thousand ills
supervene, disqualifying us for efficiency, whether on the line of manual or
intellectual labor. Here the phrase, “slow stomachs,” means the
unsanctified, sick, and nauseated with inbred sin, and disqualified for
efficiency in the Lord’s work. Hence, those Cretans much needed this
magnificent gospel of double salvation preached by Titus and his
comrades, to convert the “evil beasts” and sanctify the “slow stomachs.”
13. “This testimony is true.” Here Paul confirms the testimony of
Maimonides, the old Cretan philosopher, in reference to the perversity of
the people. “For which cause convict them keenly, that they may be
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hygienical in the faith.” These hard, wicked people need the unsheathed,
forked lightnings and smashing earthquakes of the Sinai gospel to convict
them keenly, thus giving them the only true foundation of the judgment-
day experience. With a true radical conviction and a sky-blue conversion,
they will be “hygienical in the faith;” i.e., go for entire sanctification, which
is spiritual hygiene.
14. “Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men turning
away from the truth.” The Jewish Church was full of human creeds,
ordinances, and elderly traditions, just like the fallen Churches of the
present and every other age, which always supply the absence of the Holy
Ghost by human inventions, authorities, and institutions, like these men
turning away from the simple unadulterated truth of God’s Word.
5. “To the pure all things are pure.” If you are pure from center to
circumference, you are in no danger of contamination from without. If
Satan can not put meanness into you, he is at the end of his row. You can
preach all you will in saloons, to the ragged rabble in slumdom, and to the
fallen in pest-houses. You can live and die in a fallen, Godless Church if
you shine and shout for Jesus, using that Church as a missionary field.
You can spend your life in Babylon preaching the everlasting gospel with
triumphant impunity, if you do not let Babylon get into you. Rest assured
neither Babylon nor the devil can hurt you from the outside. The ship
floats with impunity mid ocean; but let the ocean get into the ship, and she
founders speedily. “But to the corrupt and the unbelieving there is nothing
pure; but both their mind and their conscience are corrupted.” The wicked
are full of corruption, polluting both mind and heart. Thus they carry their
hell in them in earth and in hell. Yea, if they should go up to heaven, they
carry their hell in them, and there suffer the horrors of damnation. Nothing
but entire sanctification brings a radical and sure cure for inward
corruption.
16. “They profess to know God, but deny him by their works, being
abominable, unbelieving, and reprobate as to every good work.” This
picture is black as the walls of hell, appertaining to people doomed and
reprobated; yet they are Church members and preachers. They are zealous
proselyters, and stickleristic for their sect.
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CHAPTER 2

ARGUMENT 2 — DUTIES OF PASTOR AND MEMBERS

1. “But speak those things which become hygienical teaching.” O how the
Holy Ghost rings changes on spiritual hygiene! He wants to sanctify us all
holy, thus imparting and perpetuating perfect soul-health. He is overly
anxious that his children live in the cloudless light, perfect freedom, and
athletic elasticity of spiritual hygiene. Hence, he commands the preachers
to keep this beautiful truth and inspiring theme constantly before the
people.
2. “That the elderly men be sober.” Nothing but sin ever made the human
soul drunk. Therefore entire sanctification is the only state of perfect
spiritual sobriety. “Grave.” This is the antithesis of that triviality,
frivolity, hilarity, and giddy joviality by which Christians so frequently
inadvertently grieve away the Holy Spirit. “Prudent, hygienical in the faith,
Divine love, and patience.” Faith is the human side of the entire salvation
problem, and love the Divine, while perfect patience keeps all the
linchpins in their places, so the salvation wagon can roll right along the
King’s highway to glory. So, if you are prudent and healthy in these
graces, you will come out all right.
3. “Likewise let the elderly women be holy in their deportment, not tattlers,
not given to much wine, teachers of the beautiful.” This verse vividly
describes the holy and exemplary mothers in Israel, as the preceding verse
the fathers. This is the missing keystone from the fallen arches of apostate
Churches, belting the globe in these latter days, when the premillennial
prophecies hasten to their fulfillment, adumbrating the coming King. O
how sad to see fathers and mothers in the Church ripening for the grave,
and not ripening for heaven!
4. “That they teach the young women to love their husbands, love their
children,
5. “To be prudent, chaste, domestic, good, submissive to their own
husbands, that the Word of God may not be traduced.” O what a
responsibility the devolving on the mothers in Israel in the faithful
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spiritual culture of the daughters of Zion! What a glorious field of gospel
grace in which to win a crown of rejoicing that will never fade away! The
Church is the family of God, in which the fathers and mothers are expected
to walk in the clear light of the Throne, thus qualified by the indwelling
Spirit to train up the juveniles for God and heaven. “Likewise exhort the
young men to be prudent concerning all things, exhibiting yourself an
example of good works, purity, gravity, the hygienical, unanswerable Word
in teaching.
8. “In order that the adversary be ashamed, having nothing evil to say
concerning us.” Titus was a young man (not a novice), and a beautiful
example for all of the young men, preaching the whole gospel from Sinai to
Pentecost, fearless of men and devils.
9. “Let the slaves be submissive to their own masters, obedient in all
things, not answering back,
10. “Not purloining, but shewing forth all good faith, that they may adorn
the teaching of God our Savior in all things.” In the apostolic age slavery
was everywhere. The gospel is not a political, but a spiritual institution.
The slave has fully as good a chance for perfect spiritual freedom as his
master. To be sure in the grand ultimatum, when the
“thrones are cast down” (Daniel 7:9),
and the King of glory descends, he will forever smash all human and
Satanic shackles; but we must wait the good time coming. While the
Church thus waits her coming King, her militant organization perfectly
provides not only for the sanctification, but the utilization of all classes
and grades; fathers, mothers, young husbands and wives, damsels,
juveniles, and even the slaves, all to live in perfect harmony in the Church
of Christ, like the different members of a well-ordered family, beautifully
symbolic of the heavenly state.

ARGUMENT 3 — GRACE AND GLORY

11. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath
appeared.” This verse in E.V. is erroneously translated, “hath appeared to
all men,” as if the gospel at that time had reached all the people of the
earth, which was by no means true. R.V. gives the true reading of the
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critical Greek, which I hold in my hand, “The grace of God that bringeth
salvation to all men.” Christ, who at that time had recently appeared
incarnate, is that Grace. He was in the world from the beginning, the
Jehovah of the Old Testament, who saved Abel and translated Enoch,
stood before Moses forty days on Mt. Sinai, revealing the Pentateuch,
appeared to Abraham under the oak at Mamre, sat at his table, walked by
his side, and was seen by the Chaldean monarch in the fiery furnace with
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Paul affirms (Romans 1:20) that all the
heathen are left without excuse, having with them in all ages the Holy
Ghost, who is none other than the Excarnate Christ; i.e., the Spirit of
Christ. He has been on the earth in all nations and in all ages, offering
salvation to every human being, whether Pagan, Mohammedan, Papist or
Protestant.
“He is the true Light, who lighten every man that
cometh into the world.” (John 1:9.)
If all can be saved by the Spirit of Christ, now present with every soul on
the globe, why carry them the gospel? We are commanded to do it. If
disobedient, the devil will get us. Hence, we must evangelize the world to
save our own scalps. Besides, we must go in the interest of the Bridehood,
thus giving every nation a chance for the grandest privilege of worlds and
ages.
12. “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we must live
prudently, righteously, and godly in the present age.” Here we have the
plan of salvation focalized in three beautiful adverbs: “Prudently,”
signifying the moral, orderly, hygienic life, which we owe to our physical
being, in order to the enjoyment of health, muscular and nervous activity,
intellectual acumen, brilliancy and elasticity, and the greatest possible
human longevity. All this we have in the realm of morality and
philanthropy outside the kingdom of Grace, and appertaining to this
world. “Righteously” takes in the entire purview of the justified experience
and life, in which you do unto others as you would have them do unto
you, thus irreproachable and free from condemnation in all your social
relations and responsibilities, so no man in the judgment day can rise and
testify against you. “Godly” (in E.V. “godly,” which is not a correct
translation of the Greek adverb, eusebos, because it is an adjective). The
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word means a godly manner; i.e., living like God. Of course, none but
godly people can live in a godly manner. The devil humbugs people with
the vain delusion that they can live holy without sanctification, which
means the work of the Holy Ghost, by which he makes you holy. Thus
the devil puts sheepskins on his dirty hogs, and supplies the Churches
with them, passing them off for God’s sheep; but they are sure to pitch
into the first mud hole they come to, getting their sheepskins muddy, and
proving to the world, after all, that they are really the devil’s hogs and not
God’s sheep at all, for sheep will not go into a mud hole. The wonderful
grace of God actually transforms the devil’s hog into His sheep. All the
devil’s shams break down somewhere this side the pearly gate; so you had
better not try them. Jesus has been on the earth, and taught us how to live
and die; none but his disciples will ever escape hell. You can not follow
him up to heaven unless you get like him in this world; not only did he
commit no sin in thought, word, or deed, but he was perfectly free from
evil nature; i.e., had no inbred sin. Hence, we must be sanctified wholly in
order to reach the experience of purity, and become like the man Jesus, our
great Examplar. Then, when we are godly we can live “godly;” i.e., in a
godly manner, as the Holy Ghost here says. “In the present age.” Here we
have the Greek aion, so frequently in E.V. translated world, which is not
its meaning, but age, e.g., end of the world (Matthew 24:3), instead of end
of the age. As we are now living in Satan’s age of the world, literally
environed by the myrmidons of hell, nothing but the sanctifying grace of
the Omnipotent Christ can enable us to live “godly.”
13-14. “Looking for the blessed hope, even the appearing of the glory of
the great God and of our Savior Christ Jesus.” We have many precious
inspiring hopes revealed in God’s Word; but among them all the hope of
our Lord’s return to the earth, to receive and transfigure his faithful Bride,
waiting and suffering in longing anticipation, caps the climax, and is here
by the beloved apostle denominated the “blessed hope.” O the losses of
the visible church since Satan manipulated to take this blessed hope out of
the pulpit, thus robbing the pews of the grandest of all inspirations to a
holy life! Not one preacher in ten thousand is this day preaching this
“blessed hope” of the personal return of the personal Jesus in glory and
majesty “filled with all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” to execute
judgments on the wicked, sweep the reign of sin from the earth, actually
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take the devil and his innumerable armies out of this world, locking them
up in hell, girdling the world with the glories of an unfallen Eden,
translating the living saints like Enoch and Elijah, and thus inaugurate his
glorious kingdom on the earth, which in common with millions of unfallen
worlds will participate in the glories, victories, and felicities of the
triumphant incarnate Christ forever, “Who gave himself for us, that he may
redeem us from all iniquity,” not as myriads of preachers tell you “some
iniquity,” and leave some in you, that you can’t get rid of till you die.
Glory to God! I take this just as he says, “all iniquity.” “And purify to
himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” When Christ purifies
us, he makes us “peculiar.” So, if you are going to heaven, you must die
out to all sensitiveness on the line of oddity. You must be out of harmony
with the world for Christ’s sake. You will be criticized, misunderstood,
and ignorantly censured and condemned for Jesus’ sake. “Zealous of good
works.” The peculiarity of the Lord’s people is that they are constantly
like their Master, “going about doing good.” Sanctified people are forever
trying to get somebody saved.
15. “Speak these things, and exhort and convict with all authority.” We are
to faithfully tell the people the truth as it is in Jesus, omitting nothing,
however odious and unpopular. We must not stop there; but exhort the
people to obedience. Amid all, we are to hold conviction before us as a
beau ideal. Without conviction, there is neither conversion nor
sanctification. Hence, we must persist till conviction settles down on the
people. This conviction is wrought only by the Holy Spirit; but he uses
human instrumentality, instruction, exhortation, and prayer.
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CHAPTER 3

ARGUMENT 4 — REGENERATION AND SANCTIFICATION

1,2. Here we are exhorted to be loyal to the government, “peaceable,
gentle, exhibiting all meekness to all men.” That is all right; we are not to
resist. So far as compatible with duty to God, we are to be loyal in State
and Church, as enjoined by Paul. Yet we must remember that Paul himself
lost his head for disloyalty to the Roman gods. All of this loyalty and
obedience—secular, ecclesiastical, and domestic—is to be in the Lord.
Otherwise we are to suffer for Christ’s sake as all of the martyrs did; for
they had their option, Obey the heathen or papistical gods and live, or
disobey and die. They chose the latter in harmony with their consciences,
enlightened by God’s Word and Spirit.
3. This verse gives a black picture of life in sin.
4. “When the goodness and philanthropy of God our Savior appeared.”
Pure, unearthly good and philanthropy, which means the love of man, led
our Savior to vacate his Throne and come to this ruined world to die.
Mortal language is literally beggarized in the attempt to reveal the infinite
condescending of Jesus coming to this dark world to die. When Paul spent
that hour in heaven while his body lay under the shower of stones at
Lystra, he heard “things impossible” (not as E.V. has it, unlawful) to tell.
The truth at the bottom of the redemptive scheme is too deep for
revelation in mortal language, we must wait till we pass beyond, to explore
the depths and heights, lengths and breadths, of redeeming love.
5. “Not by works in righteousness which we have done, but according to
his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of
the Holy Ghost;
6. “Which he shed on us richly through Jesus Christ,
7. “That, being justified by his grace, we may be heirs according to the
hope of eternal life.” This Scripture beautifully condenses the plan of
salvation in a few simple words: First, our total depravity clearly and
unequivocally stated in the hopeless and irretrievable ruin of the fall.
 251
“Lord, I am vile, conceived in sin,
Born all unholy and unclean;
Sprung from the man whose guilty fall
Corrupts his race, and ruins all.”

Secondly, all human works are utterly futile, and forever repudiated; not
only worthless, but illusionary and manipulated by Satan, swift vehicles of
damnation. Thirdly, we are saved by the mercy of God alone, “through the
washing of regeneration,” and washing means a purgation. In regeneration
we are washed in the blood, and purified from all the defilements wrought
on the heart by personal transgressions. Fourthly, we are thoroughly
renewed by the Holy Ghost. John Wesley called sanctification “complete
renewal;” i.e., a completion of that renewal begun in regeneration— infancy
giving way to manhood. Fifthly, all this comes down from heaven. Not an
iota of the transaction is earthly. It is purely and unequivocally the work
of God. Sixthly, it is abundant. Thank God, he is not poor! He does not
stint his children, but he pours it on us abundantly. No apology for going
hungry. His table groaneth beneath its load, burdened with all the luxuries
of heaven.
8. God wants to transform us from pigmies into giants, and enrich us all
with good adumbratory of the crown in glory, which accumulates new
luster through the flight of eternal ages.
9. “Foolish questions, genealogies, Church succession and authority, and
strife and controversies about the laws, reject.” The preacher has no time
to fool away on nonessentials. Church questions, ordinances, and legalisms
have nothing to do with your salvation.
10. “A sectarian man, after the first and second admonition, reject,
11. “Knowing that such a one is turned out of the way, and is sinning,
being self-condemned.” Heretic and sectarian are synonymous—meaning a
person who has been sidetracked by a human dogma, and so far tilted as to
worship creed and sect, wresting the Bible to suit. He studies the Bible
with reference to his poor little creed, perverting God’s Word to suit it.
Millions of people and myriads of preachers are on that line, practical
idolaters tied to their creed, and subordinated to their sect. The effect is to
ruin them world without end. As Paul says, “People of that kind are
already turned away from God, and sinning self-condemned.” We are
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advised not to waste time on them. Admonish once and again. Then, if
they prove incorrigible, leave them to their doom, and devote our time to
savable people. Church members are not all sectarian; but, sad to think,
many of them are. There never was a schism in the apostolic Church till
after the Constantinian apostasy set in. The Nicene Council, A.D. 325,
made the first creed. Nothing but entire sanctification can ever save the
Church from her creedistic and sectarian heresies, bringing back to God and
the Bible. It is a significant fact that truly sanctified people are there now,
being eye to eye in spiritual things, and cherishing God’s Bible as the only
guide to heaven, and recognizing it as the only authority.
12. Nicopolis is on the southern border of Macedonia, where Paul had
determined to spend the winter. As the curtain there falls, and we next hear
of him in the Mamertine prison at Rome, we conclude he was arrested at
Nicopolis, and carried away.
13. As hitherto in Northern Greece, he finds a great open door to
evangelistic work. Therefore he requests Titus to send him Zenas, the
converted lawyer, and Apollos, so distinguished for his eloquence, whom
he had been using in the evangelization of Crete.
14. “But let all of our people learn truly to excel in necessary enterprises, in
order that they may not be unfruitful.” People who are not aggressive soul-
savers directly and indirectly, always lose ground spiritually, depreciating
in their own experiences, and trending toward apostasy and damnation.
During the Confederate War I asked an officer in General Bragg’s army,
“Why have you Confederates invaded Kentucky, instead of contenting
yourselves to operate on the defensive?” “Why? Because it is a groundhog
case with us. We are forced either to invade, or be invaded; and, of course,
we prefer the former.” So it is with all Christians. If we do not invade the
devil’s territory, and just give him all he can do to hold his ground, he is
sure to invade ours.
15. “Grace be with you all.” See what a beautiful little benediction at the
close of this epistle.
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APOLOGUE

This epistle is exceedingly beautiful throughout, abounding in the

fundamental truths of the gracious economy, exceedingly lucid on the
marvelous latitudes, longitudes, and superlative altitudes of the redemptive
scheme, actually reaching all human beings of all ages and nations with the
simple reciprocation of a responsive free-will; simultaneously quickening
the flagging hopes of all desponding saints with the near, certain, and
glorious coming of our ascended Lord in the rapture of his Bride,
judgments on the wicked, and his own glorious coronation King of kings
and Lord of lords, in the ejectment of Satan, and the inauguration of his
own glorious kingdom, destined to brighten in millennial splendor and
celestial glory forever.
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PASTORAL EPISTLES
APOLOGUE

These pastoral epistles; i.e., the two Timothies and Titus; are of infinite
moment and incalculable value to the Christian Church, evolving the whole
problem of her pure and simple organization in the pastorate and the
diaconate; the latter comprehending and administering all the temporal
interests of the local organization and ecclesiastical polity, and at the same
time at their option, like Stephen and Philip, “preaching with the Holy
Ghost sent down from heaven;” meanwhile the former are the responsible
custodians of the spiritual interests, the tender shepherds caring for the
flock and feeding the lambs; disencumbered of temporal cares (which
devolve on the deacons), they pray, preach, and run after souls night and
day, keeping their eye on the Chief Shepherd, whose coming they
anticipate every moment, when he shall give them a crown of life that shall
never fade away. There is simply no apology for the elephantine and
labyrinthine organizations of the different Churches. The moment you
create an institution, you open the door to carnality, and Diabolus walks
in. This is the solution of the awful ecclesiastical corruption, secularism,
and diabolism this day belting the globe with the Briarean arms of
Babylon, the mother of harlots. This is the fundamental exegesis of the
lamentable absence of the Holy Ghost in the Church services. So long as
we abide in New Testament simplicity, true to God’s Word, and
recognizing the presence, supremacy, and leadership of the Holy Ghost, he
abides with us. O that the Churches would only return to first principles,
and adopt again the New Testament Ecclesia!
 255

PHILEMON
PROLOGUE

Philemon was one of the few rich men, gloriously saved and supporting a
Christian Church in his house. His fugitive slave, Onesimus, took refuge in
the hiding-places of the world’s great metropolis. Fortunately hearing of
Paul, the spiritual father of his sainted Master, far away at Colosse, in
Asia, he comes to the mission, gets genuinely converted, becomes a worker
in the enterprise, and so thoroughly sanctified that he wants to go all the
way back to Asia, see his Christian master, and make it all right with him,
Paul favoring him and Philemon, his owner, with this beautiful letter, and
complimenting him with the companionship of Tychicus, entrusted with
the epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, these three, all being written
in Paul’s hired mission in Rome, A.D. 61-63. This brief epistle is brimful
of beautiful flashes of deep Christian affection and profound spiritual
shrewdness, literally sparkling with heavenly coruscations.
1-3. This beautiful introductory is addressed to Philemon and Apphia and
Archippus, the sanctified wife and husband complimented with a class-
leadership in the Church organized in the capacious mansion of their
sanctified landlord.
4-6. Paul testifies to the high Christian character and beautiful experience
of Philemon, replete with Divine love and faith toward the Lord Jesus.
7. “For I had much joy and consolation over thy Divine love, because the
hearts of the saints have been refreshed by thee, O my brother.” The lordly
mansion of this wealthy Asiatic was the rendezvous of God’s humble
saints, where they worshipped in primitive simplicity radiant with the
beauty of holiness, and enjoyed the generous hospitality of their kind host.
8. “Therefore having much boldness in Christ to enjoin upon you the thing
which is right, I the more exhort you for the sake of the Divine love; being
such as Paul the aged, and now a prisoner of Christ Jesus.” This letter is
replete with unearthly beauty and inspired wisdom, modestly and
 256
shrewdly utilized in the interest of Onesimus, the bearer, now gloriously
saved and returning to his Christian master, from whom he had fled away
while a sinner.
10. “I exhort thee concerning my child, whom I begot in my bonds,
Onesimus,
11. “Who at one time was unprofitable to thee, but now profitable both to
thee and to me, whom I have sent back to thee, him, that is my own heart.”
See the intense fatherly kindness, and the deep parental love and Christian
affection in the Pauline references to Onesimus.
13. “Whom I wish to have with me, in order that he may minister to me in
thy behalf in the bonds of the gospel,
14. “But without thy consent I did not wish to do anything, in order that thy
benefaction may not be according to constraint, but willingly.” Onesimus,
though when a sinner, doubtless a contrary and unprofitable servant in the
house of Philemon, is now so gloriously saved that he is all right, either for
manual labor, servile drudgery, or the soul-saving work in Paul’s city
mission; yet the apostle, fully recognizing the claims of his master, sends
him back to meet him face to face, rectify all past wrongs, and mutually
participate the joy of the Lord in his conversion.
15. “For he suddenly departed for an hour on this account, that you may
receive him eternally,
16. “No longer as a slave, but above a slave, a brother beloved, especially
to me, and much more to Thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord.” Paul
knowing the genuine Christian character of Philemon, and having all
confidence in the glorious experience of Onesimus, is perfectly assured of
his joyous reception by his Christian master, who will be so delighted with
his thrilling testimony to the mighty work wrought in his heart, that,
forgetting all about his former slavery, he will gladly receive him as a
brother beloved in the Lord.
17. “Therefore, if you have me a comrade, receive him as myself.” Observe
the triumphant spiritual boldness of Paul, having such implicit confidence
in the testimony and character of Onesimus that he actually puts himself
in his place.
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18. “But if he has done you injustice as to anything, or is in debt to you, set
it down to me.
19. “I, Paul, have written with my own hand, I will pay it.” See the
wonderful faith of Paul in financial matters! Though a prisoner in bonds,
and utterly disqualified to prosecute any remunerative employment, and
not worth a nickel, he boldly assumes all financial responsibility in behalf
of this poor fugitive slave, his son in the gospel. In all the great Pauline
series he dictated to an amanuensis, except this brief letter and the epistle
to the Galatians. “In order that I may not say to thee, that thou owest
thyself unto me.” See what an adroit turn he makes on Philemon! “Though
I go the security of Onesimus, and will pay all of his indebtedness to you,
do not forget that you owe yourself to me. Satan had you by the throat, till I
broke his grip and delivered you. Therefore you are indebted to me for
saving your scalp. Hence, by the time you pay me all you owe me, I can
well afford to pay the debts of Onesimus.”
20. “Yea, brother, I rejoice over thee in the Lord; refresh my heart in
Christ. Having confidence in thy obedience, I have written unto you,
knowing that thou wilt do above those things which I say.” Paul runs on
Philemon the argumentum a fortiori, having asked so much of him in
behalf of his restored fugitive slave—i.e., his manumission and joyful
reception in the brotherhood of Christ—he now climaxes all of these
demands by the affirmation of his unwavering confidence in Philemon, not
only to verify them all, but to go far beyond. With this triumphant
conclusion of complete victory for Onesimus in the home of his old
master, he now drops the subject, and proceeds to anticipate a happy visit
that delightful Christian home, which, in the good providence of God, he
doubtless enjoyed after his acquittal in his first trial at Rome, when he
went East on his long farewell peregrinations among the Churches of Asia
and Europe. Among the Christian workers in Paul’s mission at Rome at
the time of this writing we see Demas, who afterward, in the track of
Judas, went back to Satan for filthy lucre. I awfully fear Judas and Demas
have many clerical successors at the present day, alienated from the God
they once loved and ruined by the love of money.
25. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” This
benediction is exceedingly beautiful for its brevity and comprehensibility. I
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recommend it to you all. The saints of God have a rich treasure in these
beautiful apostolic benedictions found at the conclusion of every epistle.
In 1884, the last time I ever saw Bishop McTyeire, of precious memory
(for he went to heaven that year), I heard him use this benediction in the
dismission of the Kentucky Conference.
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APOLOGUE

This brief epistle has a grand and beautiful symbolic signification.

Philemon, a wealthy Christian gentleman, emblematizes God the Father;
Paul, the Lord Jesus Christ; and Onesimus, man. Here we see Onesimus
did badly, fled away from his master, and was found, reconciled, and
restored to the delightful home of his offended lord by Paul. Thus man
sinned and fled away from God, and was restored back to Divine favor and
reinstated in the Father’s family by the Lord Jesus Christ. O we are all
restored Onesimi, happy fugitives in our Father’s home.
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APOLOGUE TO VOLUME 3

The climacteric peculiarity and interest of this book is the fact of its
purely Pauline authorship. The providence of God in the existence of Paul
is miraculous, and in every way extraordinary. As an intellectualist, he is
without a peer in all ages. I have ransacked all the world for books, and
been a lifelong student at the feet of the master spirits, not only of Israel,
but Greece, Rome, Germany, England, and America. Amid all the
intellectual lights that flash along the ages from Moses to the present day,
Paul is without a peer, like Pike’s Peak amid the Rockies. While his
intellect among the sages of all ages and nations is peerless, his learning is
transcendent. The conversion of Paul in the splendors of its unearthly
glory was adumbratory of our Lord’s second coming, when the
coruscations of his heavenly splendor and glory he will appear to all the
earth, inundating the wicked with paroxysms of trepidation, transfiguring
and translating his saints.
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