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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
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FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 COVERING 
 
 The Whole Range of Christian Experience. 
 
 / 
 
 Rev. S. OLIN GARRISON, M.A., 
 
 EDITOR, 
 
 (Author Probationer f s Hand-Book.) 
 
 INTRODUCTION BY BISHOP C. D. FOSS, LLD. 
 
 1' 
 
 11 But ye shall receive power* after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you : 
 and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea s and 
 in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earthy 
 
 / 
 
 NEW YORK: PHILLIPS & HUNT. 
 CINCINNA Tl: CRANSTON & STOWE. 
 

 Copyright, 1888, by 
 PHILLIPS & HUNT, 
 
 New York. 
 
TO THE 
 
 ALUMNI AND STUDENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 DREW THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 AND TO THE 
 
 YOUNGER MINISTRY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH 
 
 TO WHOM ARE 
 
 CHIEFLY COMMITTED THE MOMENTOUS SPIRITUAL AND ETHICAL 
 PROBLEMS OF THE NEXT QUARTER CENTURY, 
 
 THIS VOLUME OF EARNEST TESTIMONY 
 
 IS MOST 
 
 Respectfullj' Dedicated. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE object of this volume is not to set forth a 
 doctrine, but to reveal a life. While it is recog- 
 nized that all life must have a concrete expres- 
 sion, nevertheless, the book, when carefully read, 
 will show the difficulty of uniformity in doctrinal 
 statement, and, perhaps, the utter impossibility of 
 the most devout minds agreeing upon the termin- 
 ology and marks of deeper religious experiences 
 especially. And yet the editor hopes that he has 
 gathered into a convenient and compact shape data 
 which will furnish some capable pen the material 
 from which to write a truer philosophy of Christian 
 experience than has yet appeared. 
 
 Among the purposes of the book are : (i) mod- 
 els of discriminating statements of experience ; (2) 
 checks to extravagance in religious language ; (3) 
 cautions against professing obtainments before they 
 are reached ; (4) to show the easy possibility of los- 
 ing the very highest graces, and (5) the wisdom of 
 frank and open confession of serious lapses. 
 
 Sincerity is of more value than maintaining a 
 doctrine. Pride is often thrust into souls easily 
 ambitious for a doctrine, or profession, or mode of 
 statement. What is more seductive than pride of 
 opinion, and what more rigid than the vain-glorious 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 maintenance of a position once gained, or thought 
 to be gained ? These u witnesses " show how easy 
 it must be for weaker minds to mistake their expe- 
 riences ; how few, perhaps, have a broad view of 
 what it means to be " perfect in love," and how 
 many, in all probability, lapse very frequently from 
 even the highest state of grace. 
 
 Moreover, the book will teach the folly, for any 
 reason, of giving up seeking and preaching a state 
 of grace plainly set forth in the Word, and logically 
 demanded by every system of religion that strongly 
 appeals to the intellect of the race. 
 
 Furthermore, the collective volume is uncon- 
 sciously at war with bigotry and exclusiveness of 
 doctrinal statement ; it especially teaches, u be- 
 tween the lines," charity toward the opinions and 
 expressions of all men ; it recognizes that men are 
 often better and truer than their statements, and 
 also that men, very blunt and exact in definition, 
 often succeed in winning souls, not so much because 
 of their nice discriminations, as they may suppose, 
 but in spite of them, and by virtue of their real 
 goodness and downright earnestness. Few men 
 ever clearly analyze, if indeed it be possible, the 
 true secret of success in themselves or others. There 
 is always large room for the influence of unconscious 
 environments. 
 
 And yet, while the book teaches charity, the 
 editor will regret exceedingly if his grouping of 
 witnesses shall, in this age of excessive liberalism, 
 tend to take any rigidity out of the back-bone of 
 a spiritual church. Let no one be discouraged, but 
 sweetly hold fast that whereunto he has attained; 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 be not afraid to investigate the reasons for the hope 
 he has within him ; reconstruct his spiritual build- 
 ing, if need be, and push upward until he domes in 
 the perfection of love, the perfection of faith, the 
 perfection of hope — a divine trinity in human expe- 
 rience — which the Scriptures clearly promise in this 
 life. 
 
 While the book has not been made all that was 
 intended, nevertheless it will be found scriptural, 
 rich in clear statements, abounding in exact dis- 
 criminations, and replete with sound sense, all of 
 which will magnify its value and tend to promote 
 the piety of the Church. Nearly all the "witnesses" 
 are over fifty years of age, and some are past eighty. 
 To encourage the children one little girl is admitted 
 to the witness stand, a delicate and often danger- 
 ous thing to do before such an audience, but this 
 unique experience could hardly be rejected. The 
 reader will notice how many were converted in child- 
 hood or youth. It is also of interest to study the 
 relation of epochs in the narration of experiences. 
 
 The witnesses were asked to write out of their 
 hearts, and without an eye upon their dogmas or 
 theology. Each one was asked to give a plain, 
 straight-forward story, chiefly of the inner life, and 
 without adornment. The following is an extract 
 from a circular sent to them by the editor. 
 
 " Knowing with what relish people listen to the 
 narration of personal experience, and with what 
 zest thoughtful people read intelligent and discrim- 
 inating accounts of the inner life, I have thought 
 it wise to gather into a small compass testimonies 
 to salvation from sin. The accounts of Christian 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 experience in the religious press are not only 
 ephemeral, but incomplete and inadequate. They 
 seldom arrest the attention of the thoughtful. The 
 very few attempts to meet this demand in book or 
 pamphlet form have, so far as I have been able to 
 learn, failed of their purpose largely, and, I venture 
 to think, for apparent reasons. Such books and 
 pamphlets have admitted argument, controversy, 
 ' peculiar views/ or dreams and other matter, gen- 
 erally of doubtful expediency ; verbosity and relig- 
 ious cant have been indulged, together with other 
 irrelevant matter. Moreover, there have been 
 allowed the testimonies of witnesses immature, and 
 incompetent, by reason of inability to correctly 
 analyze and accurately express the phenomena of 
 their experiences. It is my design to secure the 
 testimonies of ripe, capable witnesses, living and 
 dead, and, as far as possible, throw them against 
 the theoretical and practical infidelity of the age. 
 Recognizing, however, that the charm of all spirit- 
 ual biography has ever been a complete salvation, 
 and also remembering that every philosophy should 
 be judged by its best exponents, I have chosen 
 those witnesses whom I have understood to believe 
 the Scriptures promise ' perfect love/ or* holiness' 
 or a ' second experience' (as Miss Havergal calls 
 it), and who also believe themselves at some time 
 to have had this higher experience. I have it in 
 mind to prevent, as far as may be, premature and 
 superficial testimony, and to help correct and root 
 out delusions and snares, as well as remove from the 
 main vision all that is non-essential, irrelevant and 
 dangerous to the doctrine and life of purity. 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 " In seeking testimony I therefore respectfully 
 ask you to be careful, as a witness, to give very 
 briefly the errors made in seeking salvation, mis- 
 takes, if any, in deciding when the work of regener- 
 ation and sanctification were respectively believed 
 to be finished, and also a very true account of your 
 experience in becoming established in holiness. I 
 would, however, give all room for the personal 
 direction of the Spirit in^ writing testimony. I do 
 not question the divine unity which will appear 
 in the apparent diversity of reports from holy 
 people. A cast-iron uniformity is not desired. My 
 earnest hope is to make the book an enduring 
 spiritual classic in the literary clearness and strength 
 of its testimonies, braced as well by the purity and 
 power of the lives of the witnesses themselves. 
 
 EPITOME. 
 
 "(i.) A brief account of your conversion, giving 
 the dates and places of your physical and spiritual 
 births. State whether your conversion was instan- 
 taneous or gradual, clear or dim, calm or demon- 
 strative. 
 
 " (2.) An account of your regenerate life ; your 
 experience with the i carnal mind.' 
 
 " (3.) An account of your sanctification, or 'sec- 
 ond experience,' stating whether it was gradual or 
 instantaneous, quiet or emotional, whether you mis- 
 took earlier blessings for the completed work. 
 
 " (4.) A full, but concise account of your life of 
 sanctification, your lapses, the causes thereof, the 
 frequency perhaps, the difficulties and triumphs in 
 becoming established in holiness. It seems to me 
 
IO PREFACE. 
 
 there is great need of candid testimony at this 
 point. Evident, open-faced, not too discreet frank- 
 ness is always a great power in testimony. Who 
 can read or hear the painful, tearful witness of 
 ' a broken and contrite heart 9 without that melt- 
 ing sense of kinship which draws us closer to each 
 other and to our sympathetic High Priest? God 
 has not deemed it wise to cloak the evil deeds of 
 Noah, David, Peter. 
 
 "(5.) No argument, exhortation or controversy. 
 
 " (6.) Give full dates throughout if possible. 
 
 " The book is not to be denominational. It is to 
 be simply an apostolic experience meeting on 
 paper. Witnesses will be sought from every 
 Church. The Church and the world are certainly 
 making a sad blunder when, as Dr. Daniel Steele 
 suggests, they listen ' more attentively to the spec- 
 ulations of theorizers than to the declarations of 
 witnesses attesting that Jesus is a complete 
 
 Saviour/ " 
 
 EDITOR. 
 Philadelphia, Pa., March 5, 1888. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY BISHOP FOSS. 
 
 r^OD'S way of making any truth mighty is by in- 
 \ carnating it. In order to reveal himself to men 
 and angels " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt 
 among us, and we beheld his glory." To all eter- 
 nity the truth will stand that " no man hath seen nor 
 can see " the Almighty Father. The sole manifes- 
 tation of him to any created being will always be 
 through the God-man, " in whom dwelleth all the 
 fullness of the Godhead bodily." 
 
 Man is the great revelation of God. All honor 
 to " God's word written ; " but the practically decis- 
 ive revelation of God to the individual sinner is 
 not usually through the Bible, but through some 
 "living epistle/' The greatest truths in the Bible 
 have been thrown down before men millions of 
 times, and have been only as " pearls before swine/' 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 until quickened souls have picked them up, been 
 transformed by them, and held them forth before 
 the astonished gaze of men, gleaming with divine 
 luster. 
 
 Of this truth the entire history of the Church 
 affords no more striking illustration than the life of 
 John Wesley. His fifteen years of legal bondage 
 and earnest search were immensely valuable for 
 the purpose of getting a great truth, long firmly 
 held in a clear head, deeply imbedded in a hot 
 heart. When, at the age of thirty-six, he felt his 
 " heart strangely warmed," Methodism was born, 
 and the way to heaven became plainer to all suc- 
 ceeding generations. His subsequent experience 
 and teaching concerning " perfect love " brought in 
 a new era for yearning, struggling, doubting disci- 
 ples ; and the twin evangels of salvation now, and 
 of salvation from all sin, sounded out more clearly 
 than ever before, not only through all the branches 
 of the Church he founded, but throughout all evan- 
 gelical Christendom. 
 
 The great convincing proof of Christ's messiahship 
 must always be in substance the same. He himself 
 states it thus : u Go and show John again those 
 things which ye do hear and see ; the blind receive 
 their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 3 
 
 cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, 
 and the poor have the gospel preached to them." 
 After this he said, " He that believeth on me, the 
 works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works 
 than these shall he do." Those " greater works " 
 can be none other than the spiritual miracles of rais- 
 ing and transforming dead souls ; and such miracles 
 God has wrought by his modern apostles as truly as 
 he healed the sick and raised the dead by the original 
 twelve. Transformed lives, " new creatures," tri- 
 umphant experiences, Saul-Pauls — these must in 
 every age be the incontestable evidences of Chris- 
 tianity. Against such demonstration no form of 
 skepticism, whether dug out of the rubbish of the 
 past, or (if that be possible) born of some new de- 
 velopment of Satanic genius, can possibly make 
 permanent headway. 
 
 Lyman Beecher once said — I am sure of the 
 thought and almost of the exact words — " A heart 
 on fire with the love of God is the greatest created 
 power in the universe." But in order to such 
 power the heart must not only feel that love, but be 
 hot with it. Millions of church members on the 
 dead level of dry orthodoxy and decent ceremonial 
 observances and worldly living have less power 
 than one man with a great idea burning in the core 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of his heart— a Daniel, a Paul, a Luther, or a Jud- 
 son. 
 
 "Ye are my witnesses," saith the Lord. The 
 Church, which is Christ's body, has a testimony to 
 offer concerning its Head and also concerning the 
 life which continually flows from the head into all 
 the members. 
 
 This book is a summary of such testimony from 
 the lives of " Forty Witnesses," witnesses repre- 
 senting courses of life and ecclesiastical stand-points 
 exceedingly diverse ; some having " a genius for 
 godliness," and others furnishing material about as 
 intractable as grace has ever conquered and trans- 
 formed. It is highly instructive, then, to behold 
 them all gathering round the world's Redeemer 
 and with united voices proclaiming him " mighty to 
 save," to " save to the uttermost," and " able to 
 succor them that are tempted." 
 
 The freshness, frankness, individuality, variety, 
 and generally undogmatic character of these experi- 
 ences will, I am sure, make them practically help- 
 ful to many a dissatisfied and longing believer, and 
 will, I think, have also a certain philosophic value, 
 not, indeed, in settling the vexed questions relating 
 to the theological definition of " the higher life," 
 but in strongly emphasizing the truth that such 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 5 
 
 questions are altogether secondary to the possession 
 of that life itself; and that 
 
 " The love of God is broader 
 Than the measure of man's mind." 
 
 Go forth, ye <l Forty Witnesses." Pursue your 
 shining way until it leads into the streets of gold. 
 And God grant that your Beulah songs may quicken 
 the steps of many a footsore pilgrim and help to 
 augment the number of that triumphant multitude 
 who shall stand before the throne of God, having 
 41 washed their robes and made them white in the 
 blood of the Lamb." 
 
 CYRUS D. FOSS. 
 
 June 14, 1888. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART F^IRST. 
 
 Denomination. Page. 
 
 Dougan Clark, M.D Friend. 19 
 
 Professor of Latin and Greek, Earlham College. 
 
 David B. Updegraff, Minister Friend. 25 
 
 Fannie J. Sparkes Methodist. 31 
 
 Daniel Steele, D.D " 39 
 
 Professor in Boston University. 
 
 Rev. E. M. Levy, D.D Baptist. 47 
 
 Jennie F. Willing Methodist. 66 
 
 Mrs. M. Baxter Church of England. 72 
 
 Rev. William Reddy, D.D .Methodist. 76 
 
 Rev. James Mudge, B.D " 84 
 
 Frances E. Willard 4I 90 
 
 Rev. G. D. Watson, D.D " 100 
 
 Rev. B. F. Crary, D.D " 107 
 
 Luke Woodard, Minister Friend. 112 
 
 Rev. John Parker Methodist. ti6 
 
 Capt. R. Kelso Carter " 121 
 
 Mary R. Denman Episcopalian. 130 
 
 Anna M. Hammer. " 135 
 
 Rev. B. K. Peirce, D.D Methodist. 140 
 
 Hannah WhitAll Smith Friend. 144 
 
 2 
 
1 8 CONTENTS. 
 
 Denomination. Page. 
 A. II. Hussey, Minister Friend. 15S 
 
 Rev. L. B. Bates, D. D Methodist. 162 
 
 Osee M. Fitzgerald " 165 
 
 Rev. George Hughes " 176 
 
 Sarah A. Lankford Palmer " 1S3 
 
 Rev. Henry P. Hall " 192 
 
 Rev. William Jones, M.D " 197 
 
 Mary Sparkes Wheeler " 203 
 
 Lucretia A. Cullis Episcopalian. 215 
 
 Charles Cullis, M.D M 220 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 Professor Asa Mam an, LL.D Congregationalist. 223 
 
 Frances Ridley IIavergal Church of England. 237 
 
 Mary D. James Methodist. 245 
 
 Rev. William Butler, D.D " 250 
 
 Ethel Perkins " 260 
 
 Bishop C. D. Foss, LL.D " 263 
 
 Dwight L. Moody Congregationalist. 26S 
 
 Professor T. C. Upham, D.D M 271 
 
 Rev. Alfred Cookman Methodist. 2S3 
 
 Rev. J. O. Peck, D.D M 293 
 
 Phozbe Palmer " 299 
 
FORTY WITNESSES, 
 
 PART FIRST, 
 
 I. 
 
 DOUGAN CLARK, M.D. 
 
 (FRIEND.) 
 
 T WAS born in Randolph County, North Carolina, 
 <k> on the 17th of 5th month (May), 1828. I was 
 educated at Haverford College, Pennsylvania, at 
 which institution I graduated in 1852. I took the 
 degree of Doctor of Medicine at the University of 
 Pennsylvania in 1861, and practiced my profession 
 for about fifteen years. Since 1866 my residence 
 has been at Richmond, Indiana. 
 
 My parents were both ministers in the Society 
 of Friends. I had accordingly a birthright mem- 
 bership in that Church. I was carefully and tenderly 
 brought up, and taught that I must fear the Lord 
 and keep his commandments. The Scriptures were 
 daily read in our family, and I soon learned to read 
 and enjoy them for myself. The parental discipline 
 which I received was strict, but kind and loving. I 
 was to a great extent shielded from the temptations 
 
20 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 to gross sins to which many young people are 
 exposed. I was from my very infancy a regular at- 
 tender upon public worship, and in my earliest 
 years I enjoyed hearing good preaching. 
 
 The chief things inculcated in the teaching and 
 preaching of those days— I mean half a century ago, 
 so far as the Friend's Church was concerned — were 
 to mind and obey the light of God's Holy Spirit 
 shining into the heart ; to be moral and upright and 
 honest and truthful and good ; to do what duty 
 required, and to obey God; and thus to work out 
 salvation with fear and trembling. 
 
 It is true that Christ crucified was often spoken 
 of as the sinner's hope of acceptance with God ; but 
 the fact that the Spirit always testifies of Christ and 
 draws men to him was too much lost sight of, and 
 the necessity of an immediate and definite conver- 
 sion was not clearly insisted upon. 
 
 I cannot point to the time when converting grace 
 first reached my soul. I am quite sure that it was 
 in very early life. I am certain that there were occa- 
 sions every now and then, during my boyhood and 
 youth and early manhood, when my soul was filled 
 with the love of God ; when I was contrite before 
 him ; when ljiy peace flowed as a river, and when I 
 enjoyed what I now believe to have been the 
 witness of the Spirit to my adoption and sonship. 
 
 A man can be alive even if he does not know 
 when his birthday was, and so we may have the un- 
 
DOUGAN CLARK, M.D. 21 
 
 mistakable signs of spiritual life without, in all cases, 
 being able to point to the moment or the day when 
 such life began. It is not so important to know the 
 time as the fact of our conversion. But notwith- 
 standing these things are so, yet I want to add 
 right here that I do consider a definite, con- 
 scious conversion — to which the individual can point 
 in all his subsequent life as the day of his birth into 
 God's kingdom — to be an inestimable blessing and 
 a glorious privilege. And where people are rightly 
 instructed such conversions will be the rule, and 
 any other kind the rare exception. 
 
 Until I had reached middle life my Christian ex- 
 perience was very unsteady and unsatisfactory. God 
 was wonderfully good to me ; but the carnal mind 
 was very strong and ever struggling against the 
 movings of the Spirit. So I was up and down, one 
 day on the house-top, the next in the cellar ; sinning 
 and repenting, backsliding and returning; at times 
 growing in grace and at times almost losing my 
 faith and my hope. I was a Christian, but not a 
 healthy one. Still, upon the whole, I can say, to the 
 glory of Jesus my Saviour, that during those years, 
 by his grace, I did make considerable progress in 
 the divine life. The old man— the strong man— was 
 mostly kept in bonds. The struggle was often 
 severe and protracted ; but when I trusted in Jesus 
 he gave me the victory. 
 
 When I was about thirty years of age my atten- 
 
22 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 tion was first called, distinctively and intelligibly, to 
 the subject of holiness as an actual, obtainable ex- 
 perience. This was from a perusal of the Interior 
 Life, by the Late Professor Upham. 
 
 But it required many years for me to grasp the 
 subject experimentally and practically. I made 
 consecrations again and again — written and verbal 
 — but somehow they did not stand the test. I 
 struggled and prayed, and often got the victory; 
 but I was not delivered. 
 
 When nearly forty years of age I began to speak, 
 not infrequently, in Friends' meetings as a minister. 
 I only felt just call enough to justify me in opening 
 my mouth ; and, without deciding whether the 
 Lord really intended to make a minister of me or 
 not, I thought it safest to attend to present openings 
 and opportunities to speak for Him as they occurred. 
 It was comparatively only a short time before my 
 monthly meeting gave its official sanction to my 
 ministry by " recording " me as a minister of the 
 Gospel. And still I was interested in the subject 
 of holiness, and still I was desiring it, and still I was 
 not enjoying it. 
 
 At length, in the 12th month (December), 1871, 
 while attending a series of meetings at a Friends' 
 church in Ohio, in which Brother David B. Upde- 
 graff was taking part, and acting under his advice, I 
 arose in a large assembly and stated my sense of my 
 own unworthiness and weakness ; but that relying 
 
DOUGAN CLARK, M.D. 23 
 
 wholly upon Christ I did there and then reckon 
 myself dead indeed unto him and alive unto God 
 through Jesus Christ my Lord. 
 
 I had now committed myself publicly. While I 
 knew that I could not make myself dead to sin I 
 felt as if the responsibility was now laid upon Jesus. 
 What I reckoned in faith he could make real and 
 true. There was no very marked feeling for several 
 hours. I held on by faith to my confession. Then 
 came peace — full, quiet, calm ; not rapture, nor 
 ecstasy, but " All the silent heaven of love ; " and 
 this continued almost without intermission during 
 my waking hours for several weeks. 
 
 Now, what did I get ? 
 
 Answer: 1. A clean heart; I was baptized with 
 the Holy Ghost, and my heart was purified by faith. 
 
 2. Perfect love. 
 
 3. The endowment of power ; for whatever spirit- 
 ual power I have been possessed of since, either for 
 winning sinners to Christ or bringing believers to 
 entire sanctification by consecration and faith in 
 Jesus, I date it from that blessed day and hour. 
 
 How has it been with me since ? 
 
 There have been failures on my part, but God has 
 kept me wonderfully. There have been great 
 and exceedingly subtle temptations — angel-of-light 
 temptations — but Jesus has carried me through. 
 There have been great trials and fearful sorrows, 
 greater, I believe, than the average Christian, or 
 
24 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 even the average holiness man, is called upon to en- 
 dure ; but Jesus sustains and keeps and consoles. 
 There has been a good deal of blessed service for 
 him, both in preaching and writing, and a good 
 many souls testify to having been blessed and 
 brought into the light and experience of holiness 
 through my instrumentality — with pen or tongue. 
 I wish the number was manifold greater, as it might 
 have been if I had been wholly the Lord's from my 
 youth ; but I can rejoice now when others preach 
 and write better than I, and are the means of gath- 
 ering in hundreds where I bring units. 
 
 And on this 19th of February, 1887, I do still 
 testify that by the grace of God I am reckoning my- 
 self dead to sin; and I have a sure confidence that 
 now the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth me from all 
 sin, and that I have received, and now have, the gift 
 of the Holy Ghost. Praise the Lord ! 
 
 D. CLARK. 
 
 Richmond, Ind., Second Month, Nineteenth Day, 1887. 
 
DAVID B. UPDEGRAFF. 25 
 
 II. 
 
 DAVID B. UPDEGRAFF. 
 
 (FRIEND.) 
 
 T WAS born near Mount Pleasant, Ohio, on the 23d 
 <i of August, 1830. I cannot doubt that I was sol- 
 emnly given to God from my birth by pious parents. 
 My infant lips were taught to pray, and when I said, 
 
 " Now I lay me down to sleep, 
 I pray the Lord my soul to keep," 
 
 I really expected him to do it. My young heart 
 was not a stranger to the gracious visitations of the 
 Spirit of God, and was often melted by the power 
 of his love. But as I grew up I grew in sinfulness 
 and in rebellion against God. Though mercifully pre- 
 served from many sins of a gross and disgraceful 
 character, I was often in great distress of soul 
 because of those I did commit. At such times I 
 would earnestly repent in secret and cry unto God 
 for mercy. Many covenants were thus made and 
 often, though not always, broken. The covenants, 
 prayers, restraints and instructions of faithful 
 parents were not lost upon me. After being settled 
 in life I renewed my covenants with God, and sought 
 to do right because it was right. I was a birthright- 
 member of the Church and was " zealous toward 
 
26 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 God according to the perfect manner of the law of 
 my fathers." I certainly did " fear the Lord," and 
 was a "servant" under the law that " gendereth to 
 bondage " for many years. But I had not " received 
 the adoption of a son" In March, 1864, I made 
 this full discovery. The Gospel of God came to me 
 with great power. I met the test of public confes- 
 sion of sins and my need of the Saviour. It was a 
 hard struggle, for I was proud and stubborn ; but I 
 was determined to yield myself to God, and did it. 
 My spiritual conflict was somewhat protracted, but 
 it came to an end in the silent watches of the 
 night, and I had " peace with God." His Spirit 
 witnessed with my spirit that I was his child. I 
 was at once a glad and willing witness to the reality 
 of justification by faith and the birth of the Spirit. 
 I loved to tell of the power of Jesus to save and of 
 the gladness he had put into my heart. But, first 
 neglect, then disobedience, then waywardness inter- 
 fered with my Christian life. Chastening and suf- 
 fering from the hand of the Lord was followed by 
 restoration of soul. Then a more conscious and 
 definite consecration of my service to the blessed 
 Saviour. I had longed to see God glorified in the 
 salvation of souls and the enlargement of the 
 Church. Some years had passed since I had found 
 the liberty of the sons of God ; but I saw that few 
 were being brought into the kingdom. To be sure, 
 I was only a business man, and utterly averse to 
 
DAVID B. UPDEGRAFF. 27 
 
 the idea of being a minister. I greatly desired to 
 serve both God and men, but in a quiet and unob- 
 trusive way. The Church was laying a little work 
 upon me, from which I shrank with a deep sense of 
 unfitness. I felt it far more than I could under- 
 stand it. But as the Lord opened the door I 
 stepped in, and soon began to learn what real loy- 
 alty to God was to cost, and that if led by the 
 Spirit of God, and according to his word, re- 
 proaches and other like blessings, promised by the 
 Saviour, would become a reality. I had always 
 regarded these rather as a consequence of blunders 
 made by people who could not manage to keep 
 out of them. There were a good many people who 
 gave me trouble ; but as I learned more of myself I 
 discovered one " old man " who gave me more 
 trouble than all the others, and he was a member 
 of my " own household/' " His deeds " had been 
 put off, and truly there was " no condemnation/' 
 yet when " I would do good " he was present with 
 me. And he was there to " war against the law of 
 my mind," with a resolute purpose to " bring me 
 into captivity to the law of sin." If he succeeded 
 even partially I was humbled and grieved, and if 
 he did not I was in distress with fear lest he might. 
 The Lord taught me by some special providences, 
 and I began to understand more clearly how that 
 " the law was weak through the flesh." I hated 
 pride, ambition, evil tempers and vain thoughts ; 
 
28 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 but I had them for all of that, and they were a part 
 of me. Not as acts to be repented of and forgiven, 
 but dispositions lying behind the acts, and prompt- 
 ings thereto, natural to the old man and insepara- 
 ble from his presence in my being. I began to ask 
 God, with a measure of faith, to " cast him out." 
 Along with this desire there came a great " hunger 
 and thirst " to be " filled with all the fullness of 
 God." I longed for a " clean heart and a constant 
 spirit." In such an attitude of soul I attended a 
 social meeting for conference and prayer on a mem- 
 orable evening early in September, 1869. As I 
 went upon my knees it was with the resolute pur- 
 pose of " presenting my body a living sacrifice to 
 God." Such were my relations with him that I 
 saw a new light and a new privilege in entire conse- 
 cration, and set about it with great delight. But I 
 speedily found myself in the midst of a severe con- 
 flict. There passed quickly before me the obstacles 
 in the way, and the " things to be suffered for Jesus' 
 sake." The misapprehensions, suspicions, and 
 revilings of carnal professors, as well as the conflicts 
 with the world, the flesh, and the devil. And they 
 were not the exaggerations of fancy, either; selfish- 
 ness, pride and prejudice joined forces and rose in 
 rebellion, while the " old man " pleaded for his life. 
 But I could not, would not draw back. " Vile affec- 
 tions " were resolutely nailed to the cross, and 
 those things that " were gain to me " — denomina- 
 
DAVID B. UPDEGRAFF. 29 
 
 tional standing, family, business, friends, posses- 
 sions, time, talent and reputation — were irrevocably 
 committed to the sovereign control and disposal of 
 my Almighty Saviour. With my all upon the altar 
 I had no sooner reckoned myself " dead indeed 
 unto sin and alive unto God " than the " Holy 
 Ghost fell " upon me. Instantly I felt the 
 melting and refining fire of God permeating my 
 whole being. I had entered into rest, I was 
 nothing and nobody, and glad that it was forever 
 settled that way. It was a conscious luxury to get 
 rid of ambitions and self-will, and have my heart 
 cry out for nothing but the will of God. I was 
 deeply conscious of his presence and of his sanctify- 
 ing work. It was not an effort to realize that I 
 loved the Lord with all my heart and mind and 
 strength, and my neighbor as myself. The inmost 
 calm and repose in God, of that time, that day, 
 that hour, was a wonder to me then, and it continues 
 to be so still. It was, and it is, the u peace of God 
 that passeth understanding." The witness of the 
 Spirit to entire sanctification was as clear and 
 unmistakable to my own soul as it was in the 
 experience of justification. I have had abundant 
 time and occasion in the nearly nineteen years that 
 have passed, to scrutinize and test the reality and 
 nature of the work wrought then, and perpetuated 
 since by the power of the Holy Ghost. In and of 
 myself I am neither holier nor stronger than before. 
 
30 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 But I have learned that this wondrous baptism 
 with the Holy Ghost is the secret of stability in the 
 Christian character as well as success. True, it is 
 not a state that is necessarily immutable, but rather 
 a mode of life which may and ought to be main- 
 tained by a perpetual faith in Jesus and his prom- 
 ises. His constant abiding perpetuates a disposi- 
 tion to do the will of God. And our obedience in 
 allowing him to u work in us to will and to do of 
 his own good pleasure " constrains him to abide. I 
 have proven the secret of victory in this life to be 
 quietness, assurance, and obedience, loving God 
 supremely. It must be a supreme dread lest we 
 offend him. And if grieving the Spirit of God 
 is regarded as the greatest evil that could befall us, 
 the fear of man will not ensnare our feet, and our 
 eyes will keep single and the whole body full of 
 light. Let Satan stretch the last link in his chain — 
 it is still too short ; he cannot reach us. For the 
 " mighty to save " is both able and willing to keep 
 his own from the commission of sin, as well as to 
 atone for and pardon sins already committed. Bless 
 his holy name. " He that overcometh, the same 
 shall be clothed in white raiment." "And they over- 
 came him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of 
 their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto 
 
 the death." Amen. 
 
 DAVID B. UPDEGRAFF. 
 
 Mt. Pleasant, O., Third Month, Fifth Day, 1888. 
 
FANNIE J. SPARKES. 3 1 
 
 III. 
 
 FANNIE J. SPARKES. 
 
 (METHODIST,) 
 
 T WAS blessed with Christian parents and the 
 J) advantages of religious training. At the age 
 of thirteen, during a revival in the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church of Binghamton, N. Y., under 
 the pastorate of Rev. A. P. Mead, I became deeply 
 convicted of sin and sought the Lord earnestly and 
 sincerely. I had an erroneous idea of the witness 
 of the Spirit, and was expecting some wonderful 
 change to be instantaneously wrought in my heart. 
 The sense of condemnation gradually gave place to 
 peace and sometimes joy ; yet I could not say I 
 had the witness of the Spirit to my conversion. 
 
 On the advice of my parents and pastor, though 
 with many misgivings, I then united with the 
 church. During ten years that followed I was 
 counted a consistent member, and was active in 
 church and Sunday-school work. I loved God's 
 written word, loved secret prayer, and occasionally 
 had remarkable answers to prayer. Much of the 
 time, I know now, I enjoyed communion with God ; 
 yet I was constantly anxious, and troubled with 
 doubts of my acceptance, because I could not tell 
 the exact time of my conversion. 
 
32 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 In August, 1869, after a severe struggle, I re- 
 solved to seek no longer for the witness of the 
 Spirit, but to trust Jesus as my Saviour through 
 life, without light or joy, should he so will it, and 
 appear before him, at the last, pleading only his 
 word of promise. 
 
 I was led to see that I had made a mistake in 
 looking for great blessings instead of thankfully ac- 
 cepting and acknowledging those given. A few days 
 later " he that believeth hath the witness in him- 
 self " came home to me with great power, and from 
 that time I have never doubted my acceptance of 
 the Father, through his Son, nor had a single mis- 
 giving in regard to the witness of the Spirit. The 
 struggle of years was ended ; I rested joyfully in 
 Christ and was loyally obedient to him. 
 
 I had often earnestly desired the blessing of per- 
 fect love and had sought it for a time, but relin- 
 quished the search through fear that I was not yet 
 regenerated. Some of my friends thought I had 
 now received this blessing, but the Spirit witnessed 
 clearly to my heart that this was the " washing of 
 regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost " in 
 the " spirit of adoption." 
 
 The following spring I was called by the Woman's 
 Foreign Missionary Society of our Church to the 
 work of a missionary in India, and God, by his Spirit, 
 so wrought in my heart that I knew — with all the 
 certainty I then knew I was his child — that it was 
 
FANNIE J. SPARKES. 33 
 
 his call, and I dared not refuse to follow. I sailed 
 for India September 22, 1870. 
 
 New experiences, new duties, and peculiar trials 
 brought a new sense of need, and 1871 and 1872 
 were years of constant reaching out after God. It 
 was my privilege to be associated in 1872 with Rev. 
 and Mrs. C. W. Judd, who encouraged me to seek 
 for perfect love, and greatly helped me in it. As 
 new light was given I saw that my will was not, as 
 I had supposed it to be, in perfect harmony with 
 God's will. I resolved that my consecration should 
 be complete, cost what it might. The Holy Spirit 
 wonderfully helped me in heart-searchings as I 
 prayed for light, until every thing was, I knew, 
 laid' upon the altar, and I could say, " I am pros- 
 trate in the dust ; I with Christ am crucified/' At 
 last, after weary months of seeking, and feeling that 
 I could not take by faith so great a blessing, I 
 knelt by my bedside one evening in December with 
 the determination not to leave the room until vic- 
 tory should be mine. While pleading, the Spirit 
 whispered, " You have given yourself with all your 
 soul and body's powers unreservedly to God. Why 
 not trust him now to keep that you have committed 
 unto him?" I laid hold of the word, " He is able 
 to keep," etc. I said, " I do trust myself into thy 
 keeping, and will, by an act of faith, hold myself 
 steadily there until thou shalt set the Spirit's seal." 
 
 Morning was about dawning. Throughout that 
 3 
 
34 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 day, while engaged in its duties, I kept claiming and 
 realizing from moment to moment perfect keep- 
 ing power. At our consecration meeting that even- 
 ing, led by Dr. Scott, although I greatly shrank 
 from so doing, I felt that I must honor God with 
 my testimony. I stated as nearly as possible just 
 my position, and as I ceased speaking my heart was 
 filled with a sense of God's wonderful love and 
 power, and with the assurance that he saved me to 
 the uttermost. 
 
 During the days that followed I seemed to be 
 living in an atmosphere of heaven. I was lifted 
 out of and above myself and surroundings, and real- 
 ized that I was wholly saved and sweetly kept, en- 
 folded in the everlasting arms. The desire for the 
 salvation of souls was all-absorbing, so that, im- 
 pelled by a power within, and yet not of me, I 
 labored incessantly, allowing myself hardly time to 
 eat or sleep, but O, what joy I experienced in labor, 
 what help and what blessing ! 
 
 After about three weeks of this unvarying experi- 
 ence, I awoke one morning with the consciousness 
 that the Spirit's help was withdrawn. I was as one 
 who had been standing on the top of a high mount- 
 ain reaching unto heaven, drinking in fresh beauty 
 and glory at every breath, suddenly let down into 
 a low, shut-in valley, without any knowledge of how, 
 when, or why he came there. I knew the witness 
 of the Spirit to full salvation had been clear when I 
 
FANNIE J. SPARKES. 35 
 
 closed my eyes in sleep. I knew I had not grieved 
 the Spirit. The suggestion came, " You testified too 
 soon and never received the blessing you sought/' I 
 refuted the suggestion as best I could, but began 
 the day's duties with a heavy heart. I was exam- 
 ining classes in the orphanage, and from six to ten 
 found it very wearying. Soon after I involuntarily 
 spoke impatiently to a girl who was very trying. 
 It was so slight as to be scarcely noticed by the 
 class, but in a moment I was so overwhelmed with a 
 sense of humiliation and sorrow that I felt obliged 
 to retire to my room, where I humbled myself be- 
 fore the Lord and claimed forgiveness for the sin. I 
 had read a statement said to have been taken from 
 John Wesley's journal, that, notwithstanding his 
 very arduous labors, he never knew what it was to 
 feel in the least wearied, and thought this the priv- 
 ilege of all Christians fully saved. I thought, if this 
 be true, there is so much needing to be done in 
 India I need never feel weary while toiling here. 
 My friends had told me I was going beyond my 
 strength ; but I thought not. Now I realized that in 
 addition to the Spirit's withdrawal I was physically 
 prostrated. Satan whispered, " You see you were 
 mistaken in regard to that ; the whole thing has 
 been a mistake." Afterward, though not then, I 
 saw that God permitted this experience not only to 
 teach me to live by faith, but also what I was 
 always apt to forget, that " we have this treasure in 
 
36 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 earthen vessels." While I did not then really let 
 go my hold on God I was bewildered and stag- 
 gered, and, in a measure, shorn of my strength. 
 
 I think I enjoyed the blessing for two years or 
 more after this, but did not walk in the clear light 
 as I might have done had I not, through fear, be- 
 come cautious about confessing Christ as my 
 Saviour to the uttermost. Here was my fatal mis- 
 take, and I am not surprised that my light became 
 dim until it gradually died out. As soon as I real- 
 ized that the Comforter was gone I began again 
 seeking his presence, but found it much harder to 
 regain a lost experience than to attain to it at first. 
 For one year and a half following I realized much 
 of the time great help and comfort in the work, and 
 was used in the salvation of souls; but I longed for 
 full salvation and for greater power in the work. 
 I was so bowed down with a realization of my own 
 need, my lack of power, and the responsibility of 
 the souls intrusted to my care, that I often spent 
 nearly the whole night praying for their salvation, 
 and, literally bowing my face to the ground, would 
 exclaim, as did Moses, " Lord, I cannot bear this 
 people alone, because they are too much for me." 
 
 In September, 1876, 1 was holding daily meetings 
 in the girls' orphanage, of which I had charge, and 
 for two weeks no one started to seek the Lord. I 
 closed the meetings and went to Lucknow to a 
 camp-meeting then in progress. 
 
FANNIE J. SPARKES. 37 
 
 At one of the afternoon meetings, where many- 
 were seeking entire consecration, I stated my ear- 
 nest desire for a baptism of power, and asked if it 
 might be definitely sought and found. Brother 
 Dennis Osborn, who was leading the meeting, en- 
 couraged me to seek it expectantly now. I recon- 
 secrated myself to God, reckoned myself wholly his, 
 and waited for the baptism. 
 
 The next morning, while reading Isa. 32, new 
 light shone upon the word from the 15th to the 
 20th verses, and especially upon the 17th: " And 
 the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the 
 effect of righteousness quietness and assurance 
 forever." 
 
 I knew the work of grace wrought in my heart 
 through taking Christ as my righteousness had 
 brought peace, and the effect of the finished work, 
 the abiding Christ, was, I saw, the quietness of rest- 
 ing down low at the feet of Jesus, listening, ready 
 to obey his voice and the assurance that he would 
 himself do the work, only through me. The words 
 given me to speak should be his words, with his 
 power accompanying them. In an instant, I know 
 not how, my soul anchored to the words, and the 
 baptism came — the assurance that Christ, in me and 
 through me, was to be to me a power not before 
 known. I was to go forth strong in the Lord and 
 in the power of his might. 
 
 I returned to my work in Bareilly, again com- 
 
38 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 menced meetings in the orphanage, and in two 
 weeks* time more than fifty of our dear girls were 
 clearly converted. 
 
 Two months later I was obliged to return to 
 America on sick leave, but I had never before seen 
 such results in the work as during these two 
 months. Instead of so much struggling and doing 
 I could almost " stand still and see the salvation of 
 God.'' The full assurance of faith was mine. My 
 words, though fewer, more simple and more direct, 
 were, I knew, God-given and could not be fruitless. 
 I had learned, at least in a measure, what oneness 
 with Christ meant, and realized such nearness to 
 him that when I knelt in secret prayer I was in the 
 conscious immediate presence of Christ, and knew 
 my prayer was answered almost before I could call. 
 
 The most of the time since then the witness of 
 perfect love has been clear. My experiences have 
 been varied and new tests have been frequently 
 given. The full assurance of faith and the fullness 
 of the Spirit have not always been mine, but I have 
 realized access to God by faith and power in work- 
 ing for Christ, which could not have been mine 
 
 without this rest of faith. 
 
 F. J. SPARKES. 
 
 Binghamton, N. Y March 6, 1888. 
 
DANIEL STEELE. 39 
 
 IV. 
 
 REV. DANIEL STEELE, D.D. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 T WAS born into this world in Windham, N. Y., 
 <i October 5, 1824; into the kingdom of God in 
 Wilbraham, Mass., in the spring of 1842. I could 
 never write the day of my spiritual birth, so grad- 
 ually did the light dawn upon me and so lightly 
 was the seal of my justification impressed upon my 
 consciousness. This was a source of great trial and 
 seasons of doubt in the first years of my Christian 
 life. I coveted a conversion of the Pauline type. 
 My call to the ministry was more marked and un- 
 doubted than my justification. Through a mothers 
 prayers and consecration of her unborn child to the 
 ministry of the word I may say, "To this end was 
 I born, and for this cause came I into the world, 
 that I should bear witness to the truth." My early 
 religious experience was variable, and for the most 
 part consisted in 
 
 " Sorrows and sins, and doubts and fears, 
 A howling wilderness." 
 
 The personality of the Holy Spirit was rather an 
 article of faith than a joyful realization. He had 
 breathed into me life, but not the more abundant 
 
4-0 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 life. In a sense I was free, but not " free indeed ; M 
 free from the guilt and dominion of sin, but not 
 from strong inward tendencies thereto, which seemed 
 to be a part of my nature. In my early ministry, 
 being hereditarily a Methodist in doctrine, I be- 
 lieved in the possibility of entire sanctification in 
 this life, instantaneously wrought. Plow could I 
 doubt it in the light of my mother's exemplification 
 of its reality? I sought quite earnestly, at times, 
 but failed to find any thing more than transient up- 
 lifts from the dead level. One of these, in 1852, 
 was so marked that it delivered me from doubt on 
 the question of regeneration. These uplifts all 
 came while earnestly struggling after entire sanctifi- 
 cation as a distinct blessing. But when I embraced 
 the theory that this work is gradual, and not instan- 
 taneous, these blessed uplifts ceased. For, seeing 
 no definite line to be crossed, my faith ceased to 
 put forth its strongest energies. In this condition, 
 a period of fifteen years, I became exceedingly dis- 
 satisfied and hungry. God had something better 
 for me. He saw that so great was my mental be- 
 wilderment, through the conflict of opinion in my 
 own denomination relative to Christian perfection, 
 that I would flounder on, "in endless mazes lost," 
 and never enter 
 
 " The land of corn and wine and oil," 
 
 unless he, in mercy, should lead me by another 
 
REV. DANIEL STEELE, D.D. 41 
 
 road than that which has the finger-board set up 
 by John Wesley. I was led by the study of the 
 promised Paraclete to see that he signified far more 
 than I had realized in the new birth, and that a 
 personal Pentecost was awaiting me. I sought in 
 downright earnestness. Then the Spirit uncovered 
 to my gaze the evil still lurking in my nature ; the 
 mixed motives with which I had preached, often 
 preferring the honor which comes from men to that 
 which comes from God. 
 
 I submitted to every test presented by the Holy 
 Spirit and publicly confessed what he had revealed, 
 and determined to walk alone with God rather than 
 with the multitude in the world or in the Church. 
 I immediately began to feel a strange freedom, 
 daily increasing, the cause of which I did not dis- 
 tinctly apprehend. I was then led to seek the con- 
 scious and joyful presence of the Comforter in my 
 heart. Having settled the question that this was 
 not merely an apostolic blessing, but for all ages — 
 "He shall abide with you forever" — I took the 
 promise, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever 
 ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it 
 you." The " verily " had to me all the strength of 
 an oath. Out of the " whatsoever " I took all tem- 
 poral blessings, not because I did not believe them 
 to be included, but because I was not then seeking 
 them. I then wrote my own name in the promise, 
 not to exclude others, but to be sure that I in- 
 
42 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 eluded myself. Then, writing underneath these 
 words, " To-day is the day of salvation/' I found 
 that my faith had three points to master — the Com- 
 forter, for me, now. Upon the promise I ventured 
 with an act of appropriating faith, claiming the 
 Comforter as my right in the name of Jesus. For 
 several hours I clung by naked faith, praying and 
 repeating Charles Wesley's hymn — 
 
 "Jesus, thine all-victorious love 
 Shed in my heart abroad." 
 
 I then ran over in my mind the great facts in 
 Christ's life, especially dwelling upon Gethsemane 
 and Calvary, his ascension, priesthood, and all- 
 atoning sacrifice. Suddenly I became conscious of 
 a mysterious power exerting itself upon my sensi- 
 bilities. My physical sensations, though not of a 
 nervous temperament, in good health, alone, and 
 calm, w r ere indescribable, as if an electric current 
 were passing through my body with painless shocks, 
 melting my whole being into a fiery stream of love. 
 The Son of God stood before my spiritual eye in 
 all his loveliness. This was November 17, 1870, the 
 day most memorable to me. I now for the first 
 time realized " the unsearchable riches of Christ." 
 Reputation, friends, family, property, every thing 
 disappeared, eclipsed by the brightness of his mani- 
 festation. He seemed to say %i I have come to 
 stay." Yet there was no uttered word, no phan- 
 tasm or image. It was not a trance or vision. The 
 
REV. DANIEL STEELE, D.D. 43 
 
 affections were the sphere of this wonderful phe- 
 nomenon, best described as " the love of God shed 
 abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost. " It seemed 
 as if the attraction of Jesus, the loadstone of my 
 soul, was so strong that it would draw the spirit out 
 of the body upward into heaven. How vivid and 
 real was all this to me! I was more certain that 
 God loved me than I was of the existence of the 
 solid earth and of the shining sun. I intuitively 
 apprehended Christ. This certainty has lost none 
 of its strength and sweetness after the lapse of 
 more than seventeen years. Yea, it has become more 
 real and blissful. Nor is this unphilosophical, for 
 Dr. McCosh teaches that the intuitions are capable 
 of growth. 
 
 I did not at first realize that this was entire sanc- 
 tification. The positive part of my experience had 
 eclipsed the negative, the elimination of the sin- 
 principle by the cleansing power of the Paraclete. 
 But it was verily so. Yet it has always seemed to 
 me that this was the inferior part of the great 
 blessing of the incoming and abiding of the whole 
 Trinity. John 14. 23. ' 
 
 After seventeen years of life's varied experi- 
 ences, on seas sometimes very tempestuous, in 
 sickness and in health, at home and abroad, in 
 honor and dishonor, in tests of exceeding severity, 
 there has come up out of the depths of neither my 
 conscious nor unconscious being any thing bearing 
 
44 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 the ugly features of sin, the willful transgression of 
 the known law of God. All this time Satan's fiery 
 darts have been thickly flying, but they have fallen 
 harmless upon the invisible shield of faith in Jesus 
 Christ. As to the future, " I am persuaded that He 
 is able to keep my deposit until that day." In 
 regard to the process of becoming established in 
 holiness, I find this to be God's open secret — " to 
 walk by the same rule and to mind the same 
 thing." Phil. 3. 16. The rule is, faith in Christ ever 
 increasing in strength ; the heart being fertilized 
 with the elements of faith, a knowledge of the Holy 
 Scriptures, the conscience being trained to avoid 
 not merely sinful and doubtful acts, but also those 
 whose moral quality is beyond the reach of all eth- 
 ical rules, and known to be evil only by their 
 effect in dimming the manifestation of Christ within. 
 The rule of life, I find, must be sufficiently delicate 
 to exclude those acts which bring the least blur 
 over the spiritual eye. Heb. 5. 14. If any act brings 
 a veil of the thinnest gauze between me and the 
 face of Christ I henceforth and forever give it a 
 tremendous letting alone. 
 
 As another indispensable to establishment in that 
 perfect love which casts out all fear I have found 
 the disposition to confess Christ in his uttermost 
 salvation. As no man could long keep in his house 
 sensitive guests of .whom he was ashamed before his 
 neighbors, so no man can long have the company of 
 
REV. DANIEL STEELE, D.D. 45 
 
 the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the temple of 
 his heart while ashamed of their presence or their 
 purifying work. 
 
 In this respect I follow no man's formula. The 
 words which the spirit of inspiration teaches in the 
 Holy Scriptures, though beclouded with misunder- 
 standings and beslimed with fanaticisms, are, after 
 all, the most appropriate vehicle for the expression 
 of the wonderful work of God in perfecting holiness 
 in the human spirit, soul and body. 
 
 I testify that it is possible for believers to be so 
 filled with the Holy Ghost that they can live many 
 years on the earth conscious every day of a meet- 
 ness for the inheritance of the saints in light, and of 
 no shrinking back, because of a felt need of further 
 inward cleansing, from an instant translation into 
 the society of the holy angels and into the presence 
 of the holy God. This was my daily experience 
 since 1870. I have the Johannean evidence that my 
 love is pure and unmixed — that is, perfected — in the 
 fact that I have boldness in view of the day of judg- 
 ment. (1 John 4. 17, 18, Dean Alford's Notes.) This 
 joyful boldness is grounded on the assurance of a 
 conformity to the image of the Son of God, and 
 that I am, through the transfiguring power of the 
 Spirit, like him in purity, and that the Judge will 
 not condemn fac similes of himself, " because, even 
 as he is, so are we in this world. ,, 
 
 Yet I am conscious of errors, ignorances, infirmi- 
 
46 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 ties and defects, which, though consistent with per- 
 fect loyalty and love to God, need, and by faith 
 receive, every moment, the merit of Christ's death. 
 In other words, the ground of my standing before 
 God is neither perfect rectitude in the past nor a 
 faultless present service, but the divine mercy as 
 administered through Jesus Christ. Hence I daily 
 
 pray, " Forgive us our debts." 
 
 DANIEL STEELE. 
 Boston, March, 1888. 
 
REV. EDGAR M. LEVY, D.D. 47 
 
 V. 
 
 REV. EDGAR M. LEVY, D.D. 
 
 (BAPTIST.) 
 
 TT pleased God in my earliest childhood to call 
 £> me by his Holy Spirit. As far back as memory 
 will allow me to go I can recall seasons of great 
 distress on account of sin. When other children 
 around me were busy at play I would often invent 
 some excuse to withdraw, that I might find a place 
 where I could weep before God in secret. 
 
 The weary burden grew heavier with my increas- 
 ing years. As fast as my mental powers were de- 
 veloped so as to understand, in a measure, the law 
 of God, my condemnation and ruin became more 
 alarmingly real. I cannot look back to this period 
 of life as men usually do. They were not to me 
 days of mirth, but days in which even childhood's 
 laughter was turned into weeping and its buoyancy 
 into heaviness. 
 
 My parents, who were intelligent, cheerful, and 
 exemplary Christians, were connected with the 
 Chambers Presbyterian Church, and resided, at 
 this time, remote from the sanctuary of their choice 
 and opposite a Methodist church. Here I would 
 occasionally attend, and listen to the sainted Pitman 
 
48 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 and other faithful men of God. It was at this time, 
 when only thirteen years of age, that the burden of 
 sin was removed, and I had peace with God through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. I can remember the very 
 place, time, and circumstances in which this won- 
 drous change occurred. For many days I had gone 
 sorrowing. I cried unto God for the pardon prom- 
 ised to the penitent ; but he seemed deaf to my 
 entreaties. One night in the great congregation I 
 presented myself for prayer; but no peace came. 
 I returned home and retired at once to my cham- 
 ber. I knelt near the window and heard, or seemed 
 to hear, the voice of One saying unto me, " I love 
 them that love me ; and they that seek me early 
 shall find me." That promise was mine. It was 
 my Father's assurance of a loving welcome. It was 
 but a moment, and I was in his arms. It was a 
 rapturous hour. All things were changed. Sorrow- 
 ing and sighing fled from my bosom. The Spirit of 
 God witnessed with my spirit that I was born again. 
 " Being justified by faith, I had peace with God." 
 I never afterward had a doubt of my conversion. 
 Even in the most unsatisfactory days of my Chris- 
 tian life I could not question the reality of the 
 work of grace in my youthful heart. 
 
 In my twenty-first year I was ordained pastor of 
 the First Baptist Church, West Philadelphia, then 
 just organized. Here God greatly blessed my 
 labors in the salvation of sinners. I often marveled 
 
REV. EDGAR M. LEVY, D.D. 49 
 
 how one so partially consecrated could be so suc- 
 cessful. I am conscious now that I was proud of 
 my success, and that it was needful for God to 
 humble and afflict me. 
 
 After a pastorate of fourteen years I accepted a 
 call to Newark, N. J. Here, also, God wonderfully 
 blessed my labors, and hundreds were added to the 
 Church. But O, how were all my services, even 
 the best, mixed with selfishness, ambition, and 
 pride ! A consciousness of this often filled me with 
 shame and sorrow. Then I would make a new 
 effort to improve my life by more watchfulness, 
 zeal, and prayer; and although failure was sure to 
 follow, yet, not knowing of any better method, I 
 would tread the same weary road over and over 
 again. 
 
 Severe afflictions visited me. The sweetest voice 
 of the household group was hushed ; the brightest 
 eyes were darkened in death ; health failed ; many 
 friends proved unreliable ; hopes withered, and the 
 way grew rough and thorny. My unsanctified soul, 
 instead of learning submission, became impatient of 
 restraint, would sometimes murmur against the 
 dealings of God with me, question his wisdom, and 
 doubt his love. These feelings would not always 
 prevail. There would be periods of relenting. 
 Mortified at the indulgence of unchristian passions, 
 I could not refrain from weeping before God with 
 true contrition of heart ; but it was only to return 
 
50 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 to the same bitter experience. That marvelous 
 portrait which is hung up in the seventh chapter 
 of Romans, and which portrays the fearful struggle 
 between will and power — between the evil that is 
 hated and yet committed, and the good that is ap- 
 proved and yet not performed — is a faithful picture 
 of my condition at this time. 
 
 After a residence of ten years in Newark I re- 
 turned, in the autumn of 1868, to the scene of my 
 early labors, and became pastor of the Berean 
 Baptist Church, Philadelphia. Here I found the 
 religious condition of the members of my new 
 charge as unsatisfactory as my own. They were 
 in a cold, barren, worldly state. I have sel- 
 dom seen a church more broken and paralyzed. I 
 grieved for them with tender compassion. This 
 solicitude in their behalf produced a fresh conscious- 
 ness of my own imperfections. I hated sin. I felt 
 that it weakened my moral powers, grieved the 
 Holy Spirit, interrupted my communion with God 
 and impaired my usefulness. One Sunday after- 
 noon I entered my school-room unusually depressed. 
 A sense of utter helplessness came over me. As 
 my tear-dimmed eyes surveyed the school I was 
 painfully moved by the number of adult scholars 
 who were unconverted. I returned to my study 
 crying, " Who is sufficient for these things ? " 
 
 In February, 1871, Mr. Purdy, an evangelist, was 
 holding meetings in the Methodist church adjacent 
 
REV. EDGAR M. LEVY, D.D. 5 1 
 
 to mine. I was invited by the pastor to attend 
 these efforts to promote Christian holiness. I went 
 timidly at first, and yet I continued to go every 
 afternoon for several days. There were divine in- 
 fluences drawing me there. Many Christians from 
 different churches were also in attendance. Day 
 after day, with meekness and gentleness, and yet 
 with unwavering confidence, they told the story of 
 long years of conflict, and of ultimate and complete 
 triumph through simple faith in the blood that 
 cleanses from all sin, of their soul-rest and abiding 
 peace, of their power with God and man, and the 
 fullness of their joy. At first I became deeply in- 
 terested, and then my heart began to melt. I said : 
 These Christians are certainly in possession of a 
 secret of wonderful power and sweetness. What 
 can it be? Is it justification? No; it cannot be 
 that. I have experienced the blessing of justifica- 
 tion ; by it I have been absolved from all my past 
 sins ; by it I stand in the righteousness of Christ, 
 and every privilege of a child of God, and every grace 
 of the blessed Holy Spirit, has been secured to me ; 
 but I do not realize that it has destroyed the power 
 of inbred sin, or ended " the war in my members," 
 or brought to me complete rest of soul. I have 
 peace ; but it is often broken by " fear which has 
 torment." I am conscious of loving God, but like 
 some sickly, flickering flame, I am expecting every 
 moment to see it expire altogether. I have joy, 
 
52 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 but, like a shallow brook, the drought exhausts it. 
 I have faith, but it is such a poor, weak thing, that 
 I am in doubt, sometimes, whether it is faith at all. 
 " I Hate vain thoughts ; " and yet they continue to 
 come, and seem at home in my mind. I believe 
 that Jesus saves from sin ; and yet I sin from day 
 to day, and the dark stains are every-where visible. 
 Prayer is inestimably sweet ; but, alas ! it often be- 
 comes an effort. To work for Christ is a great privi- 
 lege; but it often wearies me or degenerates into mere 
 routine. The ordinances of religion yield comfort 
 and strength ; but I find as often that all spirituality 
 and power have retreated from them, leaving their 
 channels dry. I sometimes get glimpses of Him 
 whom my soul loveth, but, O! how soon the bright 
 vision fades; and " he hideth himself'' is again the 
 deep, earnest cry of my heart. Now, these believers 
 have an experience altogether different from mine. 
 Once, it is true, they felt as I feel, and mourned as 
 I mourn, over broken vows, sinful tempers, inter- 
 mittent devotions, and repeated failures. But a 
 wonderful change is now manifest. " They are 
 rooted and grounded in love." " Being made free 
 from sin," they now bring forth fruit unto holiness. 
 Having purged themselves from all filthiness of the 
 flesh and spirit they have become " vessels unto 
 honor, sanctified and meet for the Master's use, and 
 prepared unto every good work." My desires were 
 kindled. An insatiable hunger seized my soul. 
 
REV. EDGAR M. LEVY, D.D. 53 
 
 Just at this stage of my experience the meetings 
 ended, and Mr. Purdy was compelled to leave for 
 another appointment. Before leaving, however, 
 a suggestion was made, that he might be induced 
 to return and hold meetings in my own church. 
 It was a surprise to me. I was not sure that my 
 people would consent. I could do nothing, there- 
 fore, but leave it for the decision of the church on 
 the coming Sabbath. I did so, and, greatly to 
 my surprise, there was not the slightest objection 
 raised. It was of the Lord. 
 
 During the ten days that preceded the meeting I 
 was more than usually prayerful. I commenced a 
 careful examination of the doctrine of sanctification. 
 I reviewed my theological studies. I could scarcely 
 think, or read, or pray on any other subject. I 
 conversed with intimate friends of my own and 
 other denominations. Nearly all of them pronounced 
 the views advanced as nothing else than unscriptural 
 and pernicious errors. They admitted the exist- 
 ence and universality of the disease, but could tell 
 of no adequate remedy this side the grave. They 
 allowed that the malady might be mollified ; but in 
 this life, they affirmed, it could never be perfectly 
 healed. I searched the Scriptures, but, alas ! my 
 "my eyes were holden," so that I could not see 
 that perfect deliverance from sin which God has 
 provided, through the redemption of Christ, for his 
 believing people. Those passages in the word of 
 
54 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 God which require of all his children holiness of 
 character, purity of heart, the entire sanctification 
 of the soul, body and spirit, I was led to regard, 
 from educational training, as marks — very high in- 
 deed — after which every Christian should aspire, 
 but to which no one could ever attain ; or else as 
 figurative expressions, indicating that at conversion 
 we were made, in some judicial sense, holy before 
 God. 
 
 These views, however, could no longer satisfy 
 me. I had an intense longing for something better. 
 With the poet, my poor heart cried out: 
 
 " I'm weary of the strife within, 
 O let me turn from self and sin ! " 
 
 The first day of our meeting had come. The 
 church was well filled. I introduced Mr. Purdy. 
 But I had many misgivings, and a secret desire in 
 my heart that he would say nothing about sancti- 
 fication, but bend all his efforts to the conversion 
 of sinners. This, however, was not his way. Like 
 a wise master-builder, he commenced to lay the 
 foundation broad and deep. He took our Confes- 
 sion of Faith, and urged, from the teaching con- 
 tained therein, that we should accept the doctrine 
 of sanctification by faith. Our Covenant was next 
 produced ; and here he reminded us that in this we 
 solemnly promised that we would so regulate our 
 lives as to enable us to " stand perfect and com- 
 
REV. EDGAR M. LEVY, D.D. 55 
 
 plete in all the will of God." Last of all, he spoke 
 of our baptism as a beautiful symbol of our death 
 unto sin, our burial with Christ, and our resurrec- 
 tion to a new and holy life. " According to your 
 form of baptism," he said, " the body is buried in 
 water as the corpse is buried in the grave. In all 
 your teachings on this subject you insist that it is 
 a figure of the believer's death and burial unto sin« 
 But that is not all. You not only claim, in this act, 
 that you die to sin, but that you also rise to a life 
 of holiness. * Now, if we be dead with Christ, we 
 believe that we shall also live with him : knowing 
 that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no 
 more ; death hath no more dominion over him. 
 For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in 
 that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon 
 ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but 
 alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.' ' 
 (Rom. 6). With great emotion and emphasis he 
 said, " You have the type, the figure, the symbol : 
 will you deny the doctrine, and make what distin- 
 guishes you as a denomination a mere empty, life- 
 less ceremonial ?" 
 
 After the sermon a number of persons bore testi- 
 mony to the fullness and completeness of their 
 present salvation. They represented several evan- 
 gelical denominations — the Methodist, the Episco- 
 palian, the Presbyterian, the Friend, the Baptist ; 
 and there was a beautiful harmony in all that they 
 
56 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 said. I had no reason to doubt the truthfulness of 
 their statements. " I might question, " I thought, 
 " their logic, find fault with their theories, and reject 
 their phraseology; but how could I dispose of their 
 experience? My judgment was assailed as it had 
 never been before. After the meeting I returned 
 to my study, fell upon the floor, and poured out my 
 soul before God. I did not pray for pardon, but 
 for purity. I did not seek clearer evidences of my 
 acceptance, but to be " made free from sin," not in 
 a judicial or theological sense, but by a real, con- 
 scious, inwrought holiness. 
 
 That night I was unable to sleep. I was com- 
 pletely broken down in heart before God. The 
 vision of Isaiah seemed reproduced. " I saw also 
 the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up." 
 " Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone ; be- 
 cause I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in 
 the midst of a people of unclean lips ; for mine eyes 
 have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." 
 
 The morning at length dawned, and on every 
 ray I could read, " Walk in the light as he is in the 
 light." " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts," as 
 chanted by the seraphim, seemed floated through 
 all the air. As I thought of God, it was not so 
 much his power or wisdom or justice or love that 
 attracted my attention, as his infinite, spotless holi- 
 ness. 
 
 That day, Friday, March 9, 1871, was observed 
 
REV. EDGAR M. LEVY, D.D. $? 
 
 by the church as a special season of fasting, humili- 
 ation, and prayer. My soul was in great agony. I 
 can compare my experience on this memorable day 
 to nothing else than crucifixion. It seemed to me 
 that I had gone up with Christ to Calvary and was 
 transfixed to the cruel and shameful cross. A sense 
 of loneliness and abandonment stole over my mind. 
 " An horror, of great darkness, fell upon me," and 
 all the powers of hell assaulted my soul. The ene- 
 my brought before me, with tremendous force, my 
 life-long prejudices, my theological training, my 
 professional standing, my denominational pride. It 
 was suggested that I must leave every thing behind 
 me should I go a step farther in this direction. The 
 dread of being misunderstood, of having my motives 
 questioned, of being called " unsound in doctrine," of 
 being slighted by my ministerial brethren, and 
 treated with suspicion and coldness, filled my heart 
 with unspeakable anguish. Every thing appeared 
 to be sliding from under my feet. My sight grew 
 dim, my strength departed, and faintness, like unto 
 death, came upon me. 
 
 This mental conflict, however, soon subsided. 
 The storm-clouds passed away, and light began to 
 stream in. I was now done with theorizing, with 
 philosophical doubts and vain speculations. The 
 struggle was over. I cared no longer for the opin- 
 ions of men. I was willing to be a fool for Christ 
 and to suffer the loss of all things. I was like a 
 
58 - FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 little child. I cried out, " Teach me thy way, O 
 Lord ! and lead me in a plain path." Just then the 
 fountain of cleansing was revealed. Jesus stood 
 before me, with his bleeding wounds, saying, " Come 
 in ! Come in ! " 
 
 I turned to my congregation and said, " I stand 
 before you to-day a poor, weak, and helpless sinner. 
 I have tried to find the way of holiness by every 
 possible means. All my efforts, my struggles, my 
 prayers, my fasting, and my round of duties have 
 proved miserable failures. God is making a won- 
 derful revelation to my long-darkened understand- 
 ing. I am confident now that it is not by growth, 
 or by effort, or by works of any kind; ' for then 
 would our salvation be of works, and not of grace/ 
 ' In that day, saith the Lord, there shall be a fount- 
 ain opened to the house of David, and to the inhab- 
 itants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.* 
 That day has come. Here lies the fountain of my 
 Saviour's blood. It was opened for me, even me," 
 
 I fell upon my knees and bowed my face to the 
 floor. For a moment I felt that I was sinking in a 
 great sea, and that all its waves were going over me. 
 But they did not seem to be the waters of death. 
 
 The Spirit of God whispered those precious 
 words : " But if we walk in the light, as he is in the 
 light, we have fellowship one with another, and the 
 blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all 
 sin." My faith laid hold of this wonderful truth, 
 
REV. EDGAR M. LEVY, D,D. 59 
 
 A strange peace entered into my soul. I exclaimed 
 within myself, " I am free ! My heart, my soul, 
 my mind, my body, are washed in the blood of the 
 Lamb ! " It was all so strange, so new, so unlike 
 any thing I had ever experienced before, that I 
 could not utter a word, and then the only senti- 
 ment of my heart was, u Lord, it is done ! I am 
 saved ! " 
 
 When the meeting ended I repaired immediately 
 to the parsonage. I experienced great physical ex- 
 haustion, like Jacob, who was never so weak as 
 when he had just prevailed with the angel. 
 
 I threw myself into a chair, and at once the 
 blessed baptism came. I seemed filled with all the 
 fullness of God. I wept for joy. All night long I 
 wept. All the next day, at the family altar, in the 
 street, and in the sanctuary, tears continued to flow. 
 The fountains of my being seemed broken up, and 
 my heart was dissolved in gratitude and praise. 
 My soul seemed filled with pulses, every one thrill- 
 ing and throbbing with such waves of love and 
 rapture that I thought I must die from excess of 
 life. 
 
 At once I had a new and wonderful sense of the 
 presence of Christ. Those words of Jesus were 
 made real to me : " Abide in me, and I in you." I 
 had now an abiding Christ. With Mrs. Edwards I 
 could say, " The presence of God was so near, so 
 precious and so real, that I seemed scarcely conscious 
 
60 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 of any thing else. The whole world, with all its 
 enjoyments and all its troubles, seemed to be noth- 
 ing; my God was my all, my only portion." 
 
 The sovereign will of God seemed at once so 
 sweet and blessed that I felt lost in the thought 
 that God ruled over and in me. I found myself 
 praising him for every trial, sorrow, disappointment, 
 and loss. 
 
 My sense of unworthiness was greatly quickened. 
 I felt so small, so weak, so utterly nothing, I could 
 no longer pray in the sanctuary, as had been my 
 custom, in a standing position. I wanted to keep 
 sinking lower and lower. And this desire brought 
 a strange pleasure. 
 
 I felt a sweet spirit of forgiveness in my heart. 
 It was easy for me to pray for those who had in- 
 jured me ; persons who had become repulsive to 
 me appeared, all at once, as possessing many excel- 
 lences. I saw so much more to admire, and so 
 much less to condemn, in the people of God, that 
 it seemed God had " made all things new." 
 
 My love for the brethren was much enlarged. 
 Denominational distinction disappeared, and my 
 heart flowed out in tender affection for " all those 
 that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." 
 
 Answers to prayer were continually occurring. 
 The promise was made good, u Whatsoever ye shall 
 ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." 
 One out of many instances of this nature I wish to 
 
REV. EDGAR M. LEVY, D.D. 6l 
 
 relate. During two or three weeks I had scarcely 
 slept at all, first from excess of sorrow and then 
 from excess of joy. Night after night witnessed 
 my utter inability to sleep. Mind and body began 
 to show great nervous exhaustion, which only in- 
 creased the tendency to wakefulness. One night 
 after retiring, and suffering as before, it occurred to 
 me, " Now ask Jesus." At once I raised my heart 
 in prayer, saying, " Blessed Jesus! I need sleep. 
 Effort will not bring it. I now seek it from thee ; 
 let me go to sleep." Immediately I fell asleep, and 
 continued to sleep soundly all that night and every 
 night since. 
 
 My mind became solemnly impressed with the 
 personality of the devil. For several days, it is 
 true, he was not permitted to attack my soul in the 
 slightest manner. For the first time in my life I 
 was so free from all temptation that I was not con- 
 scious of his existence. But it was only for a time. 
 One afternoon, just as I took my seat in the pulpit, 
 Satan stood at my side in dread personality. To 
 my mental sight he appeared, as never before, fear- 
 fully and maliciously real. At once I became un- 
 conscious of all beside. He suggested such thoughts 
 as these : " Your present experience is, I admit, 
 very satisfactory. But will it continue ? What will 
 you do when these meetings shall end, and these 
 birds have done singing, and all these Christians 
 are gone to their several churches and you shall be 
 
62 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 alone ? " Words utterly fail to convey to another 
 the malignant force of these satanic utterances. 
 But with humble boldness I answered, " I can do 
 without the creature, but not without the Creator. 
 Human sympathy and Christian fellowship are inex- 
 pressibly sweet ; but they are not indispensable to 
 my happiness or safety. Possessing Christ I have 
 all." " And he showed me Joshua the high-priest 
 standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan 
 standing at his right hand to resist him. And the 
 Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O 
 Satan ! even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem 
 rebuke thee : is not this a brand plucked out of the 
 fire ? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, 
 and stood before the angel. And he answered and 
 spake unto those that stood before him, saying, 
 Take away the filthy garments from him. And 
 unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine in- 
 iquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee 
 with change of raiment." (Zech. 3. 1-4). At once 
 I had such a ravishing view of the infinite loveliness 
 and all-sufficiency of Jesus that my heart glowed 
 with new rapture, as the words of the poet came 
 flashing upon my mind : 
 
 " O Lord ! I would delight in thee, 
 And on thy care depend ; 
 
 To thee in every trouble flee, 
 My best, my only Friend. 
 
REV. EDGAR M. LEVY, D.D. 63 
 
 " When all created streams are dried 
 
 Thy fullness is the same ; 
 May I with this be satisfied, 
 
 And glory in thy name ! " 
 
 Instantly the devil fled, and I was dissolved in 
 tears of gratitude. 
 
 Several weeks after this, while riding in a street- 
 car, I was again fiercely assaulted by this enemy of 
 all righteousness. Thoughts of evil darted through 
 my mind like summer lightning. I remember well 
 how, in former years, I would exert all my mental 
 powers to put from me these vile suggestions. It 
 used to be a mighty conflict between the powers of 
 darkness and my own puny strength ; and it seldom 
 ended without leaving its stain and involving my 
 soul in great spiritual depression. But now, with- 
 out an effort or a struggle, I found myself, like a 
 fluttered dove, fleeing to Christ. In a moment the 
 thoughts of evil were gone, and my soul exulted in 
 the triumphs of all-victorious faith : * 
 
 " The dove hath neither claw nor sting, 
 
 Nor weapon for to fight : 
 She owes her safety to her wing, 
 
 Her victory to flight." 
 
 The personality and office-work of the blessed 
 Holy Spirit were revealed to my spiritual percep- 
 tions as they had never been before. He taught 
 me more of his own adorable being in one moment 
 
64 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 than I had learned from theological treatises during 
 all my life. And O ! what a Comforter he became 
 to me ! He seemed to regard me as a little weak, 
 convalescent child, that needed to be carried in the 
 arms and comforted. He had been before my Re- 
 prover; but now he sweetly whispered, u No more 
 reproof, no more wounding. I am come to com- 
 fort, to heal, to sanctify, and to * abide with you 
 forever/ " 
 
 Indeed, all the doctrines of the Gospel at once 
 became luminous in the presence of the Sanctifier. 
 What was formerly a speculative conviction became 
 now a wondrous reality. What once appeared in 
 dim outline, like some beautiful landscape partly 
 revealed by moonlight, now glowed with distinct 
 and golden splendor. 
 
 Life has become marvelously simplified and 
 natural. I no longer work for liberty, but as having 
 liberty ; not for, but from life. That which before 
 was either impossible, or at least difficult, is now 
 natural and easy. 
 
 I do not find this life — what in my ignorance I 
 once regarded it — one of mysticism, indolence, and 
 self-gratulation, but a life of ceaseless activity amid 
 undisturbed repose ; of perpetual absence of all 
 weariness amid perpetual employment. Neither 
 do I find it a condition of stagnation. All life in- 
 volves growth, and there are no limits to the possi- 
 bilities of growth in the life of faith. The more the 
 
REV. EDGAR M. LEVY, D.D. 65 
 
 soul receives the more it is capable of receiving, 
 and the more it yearns to receive. 
 
 I have not realized that this experience exempts 
 us from trial, persecution and disappointment. 
 For me the way has frequently been strewn with 
 thorns rather than roses. Unkindness has often 
 wounded my heart. Friends have turned away, 
 sometimes with pity and sometimes with blame. 
 At times I have been in heaviness through mani- 
 fold temptation, and faith has almost yielded to the 
 outward pressure ; but, blessed be God, for sixteen 
 years I have been preserved from all murmuring, 
 disquietude, or fear. The trials have not been too 
 many or too severe. Every arrow has been feath- 
 ered with love, and every furnace blast has but con- 
 sumed the dross. I am saved ! Saved to the ut- 
 termost ! Glory to the Lamb ! 
 
 EDGAR M. LEVY. 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa., March, 1887. 
 5 
 
66 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 VI. 
 
 JENNIE F. WILLING. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 IN a prayerless home, my first remembered relig- 
 £> ious impressions were received when my sister, 
 fourteen years older than I, came home from a revival 
 meeting and told me that she had given her heart 
 to the Saviour. She prayed with me, and I now 
 think I was converted then, though only five years 
 old. She lived till I was eight, a beautiful, consist- 
 ent, Christian life. When she died my grief was as 
 deep as a child may know. But the saddest thought 
 of all was that now I would have no one to help me 
 be good. 
 
 I kept up my praying secretly, and I was often 
 greatly moved when I went to church, though the 
 influences about me were far from helpful to Chris- 
 tian living. When I was eleven I joined the 
 church. 
 
 To all others it could have been of small conse- 
 quence that a little child should publicly profess 
 faith in Christ ; but to me the step was of the 
 utmost importance, for I gave up my dancing, card- 
 playing, and, four years later, my novel-reading, 
 
JENNIE F. WILLING. 67 
 
 because I believed they would hinder my efforts to 
 serve the Lord. 
 
 When I was nineteen all my family were brought 
 to Christ during a revival in the Congregational 
 church of which I was a member. During the 
 meetings I worked incessantly, and with great joy 
 in the Saviour. Yet all the time I was certain there 
 were tendencies within that would draw me back to 
 my worldliness when the revival pressure was re- 
 moved. 
 
 As soon as my brothers were converted I began 
 to feel an intense desire for strength that I might 
 take care of them when their times of temptation 
 should come. I fasted and prayed, asking in an 
 agony of earnestness, " Is there no way to be estab- 
 lished so that one will be as religious all the year 
 round as she is during the revival? " I talked with 
 my pastor and the best of the church members, but 
 they said, in substance, " Don't worry; you're doing 
 very well. Be sure and read your Bible and pray 
 a good deal, and you'll get on as well as the rest." 
 " But will we all grow cold when the meetings are 
 over?" "Why, yes, of course. That's about the way 
 it has to go." " Then my brothers will backslide," 
 I said, almost in despair. " They've been very 
 wicked, and, unless I keep near the Saviour I know 
 I can't help them as they need, and they'll not live 
 through the summer." 
 
 Here was a paradox. Never happier in Christ, 
 
68 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 and yet never in greater unrest of soul. The nearer 
 Jesus, the keener the heart-hunger. At last, worn 
 out with strugglings, after having tried every other 
 aid, I got down as a little helpless, tired child, and 
 said, " Dear Saviour, if thou ever didst such a thing 
 as to establish one in thy grace, so that she could be 
 as religious in summer as in winter, I beg of thee to 
 so establish me ! " And he did — the next moment. 
 
 Though I was surely his child before, a change 
 passed upon me as decided as going at once from 
 densest midnight to broadest noon. When I rose 
 from my knees I said to a friend, " I shaVt back- 
 slide this summer." " Why not? How do you 
 know?" " Because Christ has established me. I 
 haven't the shadow of a fear now." " I wish he 
 would establish me." " He will if you'll give him 
 all your heart and trust him fully. His perfect love 
 casts out all fear." 
 
 Though quite horrified when a friend, to whom I 
 related this experience a few months later, suggested 
 the possibility of its being sanctification, I used in 
 my public and private testimonies the same lan- 
 guage that those do who profess that grace. 
 
 After becoming the wife of a Methodist minister 
 I learned to use the Wesleyan phraseology. 
 
 Within a year after my marriage, however, I was 
 thrown in contact with a set of people who pro- 
 fessed perfection in the strongest terms, and yet who 
 were chiefly characterized by their censoriousness. 
 
JENNIE F. WILLING. 69 
 
 Resenting their strictures, I grieved the Holy Spirit 
 and lost the grace that had given me profound rest 
 under most trying circumstances. 
 
 The next ten years were spent in an almost inces- 
 sant struggle to regain the forfeited treasure. A 
 Christian, zealous and constant, yet never fully at rest. 
 Again, the nearer Jesus the more heavily the burden 
 of innate sinfulnesss pressed my heart. Days were 
 spent in fasting, nights in prayer, and tears were shed 
 till my physical strength seemed quite exhausted — 
 all to no purpose. The main trouble was, as I came 
 afterward to see, I was determined to have the same 
 set of emotions that I had in my early experience 
 before I would believe my prayer answered and the 
 grace restored. The divine rule, " By grace ye are 
 saved through faith" could not be abrogated for 
 me, and so my cries and prayers were of little use. 
 
 At last I began to use common sense with my 
 earnestness. I went through the problem of my ex- 
 perience as slowly, difficultly and coolly as though 
 it were a mathematical or logical question. 
 
 The first point settled, never to be reconsidered, 
 was the relation of the emotions to the actual relig- 
 ious state. Usually unreliable, they must be ruled out 
 of the court as unfit to testify. The next step was 
 to find the limits of the consecration required. God 
 has no right to hinge our salvation upon our doing 
 what we do not know how to do ; it is impossible 
 for us to give him what we do not know about. He 
 
yo FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 loves us too well to require the impossible ; so the 
 limit of our knowledge must be the limit of respon- 
 sibility in consecration. " O Lord, I give thee all 
 I know to give, just as well as I know how. When 
 I come to know and have more I will give more. 
 There, that consecration must be as complete as I 
 can now make it." Satan had driven me so many 
 times from that point in the ten, long, wilderness 
 years, he did his best to drive me now from this 
 position. I held my position. " I am honest. I 
 purpose to be wholly the Lord's at any cost. If I 
 do not give all it is because I do not know how ; 
 and Christ cannot hold me responsible for what I 
 do not know." I settled it that only two points 
 were to be made : complete consecration and complete 
 trust, "I have been all these years trying to believe; 
 now I will give up trying. I will simply say, I do give 
 all to Jesus as well as I can. He asked for me, so, 
 of course, he takes me. If he really wants to save 
 me — and it is wicked to think any thing else — he has 
 the chance, for I have given myself wholly to him. 
 Does he now save me? I don't feel it. Feeling is 
 not to be considered. It is the fact I want. Am I 
 now cleansed from sin by the blood of Christ ? He 
 has me in his hands, and he so hates sin he will not 
 let me stay unclean when he has the chance to 
 cleanse me. Yes, I believe he now saves me fully, 
 and I am willing to risk the assertion to my hus- 
 band, to the Church, to the world." 
 
JENNIE F. WILLING. 7 1 
 
 It took nearly two weeks of slow, close thinking 
 and prayer, for me to crowd myself, inch by inch, 
 through this process. The promise used of the 
 Holy Spirit to strengthen my almost paralyzed be- 
 lieving power was that word in John, "And this is 
 the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask 
 any thing according to his will he heareth us, and if 
 we know that he heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we 
 know that we have the petitions that we desired of 
 him. ,, Only two conditions are given here — that 
 what we ask is "according to his will," and that "he 
 heareth us." " It is according to his will that I be 
 cleansed. The opposite of this proposition is 
 not thinkable. He heareth me. If he is with me 
 alway, as he promised, he cannot help hearing me. 
 Then I know that I have the petition, even the 
 cleansing of my heart." 
 
 Since then, though often stumbling and always 
 
 full of infirmities, I have been enabled by divine 
 
 grace to walk in the light. Whenever a doubt has 
 
 risen, or I have fallen into sin, I have gone at once 
 
 through the " process " of consecration and trust, 
 
 believing that, as certainly as two and two make 
 
 four, this, honestly done, results in the cleansing 
 
 from all sin. 
 
 JENNIE F. WILLING. 
 
 Lake Bluff, III., July 2, 1887. 
 
J2 FORTY WITNESSES, 
 
 VII. 
 
 MRS. M. BAXTER. 
 
 (CHURCH OF ENGLAND.) 
 
 *IDROUGHT up as a member of the Episcopal 
 'T Church of England, under a ministry then 
 unspiritual, I had, although trained to a high moral 
 standard, " no hope," and was " without God in 
 the world." In his grace he sought me, first by 
 strong convictions that my life was fundamentally 
 wrong and that I had no real contact with God. By 
 the side of my father's grave, in my ignorance of 
 God's love, I vowed that if he would speak with 
 me as he did with Abraham and Noah I would 
 willingly give up my sight, my hearing, or any 
 thing else for the privilege. 
 
 Only four months later, on October 12, 1858, God 
 revealed himself to me in his own word. A friend, 
 who had also lost her father, came to see me and 
 spoke to me about my soul. Till that time no one 
 had ever asked me a direct question, I told her 
 frankly that I would not ask God for the pardon of 
 my sins ; I should be asking an unjust thing, and 
 were he unjust I could not worship him. God 
 guided the reply; it was his own word: "All we 
 
MRS. M. BAXTER. 73 
 
 like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every- 
 one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on 
 him the iniquity of us all." (Isa. 53, 6.) Without a 
 word, without a formal prayer, Jesus stood revealed 
 to me as juat, and yet the justifier of him that 
 believeth. I had what I had longed for, commun- 
 ion with God, in which Jesus would speak to me and 
 I to him, and for many nights could not spare the 
 time for sleep. He made it no difficulty to me 
 to give up all for him ; it came quite natural. 
 Dancing, acting, novels, fashionable dress, jewels, 
 caricaturing, etc., died out of my life by the absorb- 
 ing power of the new life within. It made me feel 
 I possessed a knowledge which would save men 
 from hell, and almost all my time was spent in 
 speaking with individuals and seeking to win them 
 to Christ. 
 
 But some months later, more than half a year 
 after my conversion, although I saw souls contin- 
 ually saved, yet I felt a need for a deeper work of 
 grace. A number of the Guide to Holiness was put 
 into my hands, in which was an article by the late 
 Mrs. Phoebe Palmer. I took it to the Lord, and 
 then and there was led to yield up myself a living 
 sacrifice, and to accept the cleansing from all sin as 
 far as I then understood it, and in some way 
 accepted the Holy Ghost to possess me. At this 
 time the acquaintance of the late Rev. Mr. Aitken 
 of Pendem, was an untold blessing to me. For eight 
 
74 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 years after this time my life seemed to be a going 
 on from strength to strength. It was but a small 
 sphere of labor which God gave me, in a little town 
 and the surrounding villages, but he worked 
 blessedly and gave me, through correspondence and 
 through notes on the Scriptures, an increasing 
 influence. 
 
 But I did not know how much I was occupied at 
 that time with myself and my own holiness. I fell 
 into spiritual pride. This opened the way for other 
 sins of temper, etc. I was sorely disappointed with 
 myself; I felt as though God had failed me. I had 
 conceived a very high and ascetic standard, and I 
 had fallen miserably below it, and though I cried to 
 God for hours by day and hours by night, my old joy 
 and peace did not return. In the year 1873 I first saw 
 Gladness in Jesus, by the Rev. W. E. Boardman, 
 and in reading it my eyes were opened to see that 
 I had been all this time dealing with myself instead 
 of acting truly to my first consecration of myself to 
 God and letting him deal with me. All my confi- 
 dence in my own experience as a saviour was gone. 
 My old experience lived again, it is true, but I was 
 on the divine side of it, seeing Jesus as my sanctifi- 
 cation, Jesus dwelling in me to be patience in me, 
 love in me, and all else I needed. 
 
 From this time God has been closely educating 
 my conscience. While he keeps me from sinning 
 as I trust him, he teaches me from time to time his 
 
MRS. M. BAXTER. 75 
 
 own views of sin, so that things which a year ago 
 were not sin to me are so now. But the conflict is 
 transferred ; the battle is the Lord's. He cleanses, 
 he helps, he fights. I trust and praise him. He 
 has taught me the same blessed faith for the body 
 as the soul. All glory to his holy name. 
 
 M. BAXTER. 
 London, England, March 4, 1887. 
 
?6 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 REV. WILLIAM REDDY, D.D. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 TT is a delicate and difficult thing to speak or to 
 £> write of one's own personal experience and not 
 to have self crop out. Our Lord said, " He 
 that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, but 
 he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is 
 true and no unrighteousness is in him." Can I do 
 this in endeavoring to " declare what the Lord has 
 done for my soul ? " May the Holy Spirit give me 
 a " single eye," that I may magnify the grace that 
 " hath saved me, and called me with a holy calling." 
 I was born in what is now Ledyard township, 
 Cayuga County, N. Y., September 28, 18 13. I was 
 at different times, in early life, somewhat convicted 
 of the need of salvation, and made some feeble and 
 abortive attempts to seek the Lord. I was induced 
 to attend a Methodist revival-meeting and found 
 myself bracing against the influence of the meeting. 
 But after having declined to go to the altar on the 
 solicitation of the Congregationalist minister, who 
 had known my former failure, I at last decided to 
 yield, and in going I said, " I will never leave that 
 
REV. WILLIAM REDDY, D.D. H 
 
 altar till I am saved, if there is salvation for me." 
 I struggled and wrestled, but when I gave up my 
 struggles and sank down in self-despair, saying, " if 
 I perish, I perish. " I then found rest and a degree 
 of peace. I felt that I had crossed the line and was, 
 by choice and surrender, " on the Lord's side," but 
 without much emotion, and without a divine and 
 intelligent assurance of pardon. But I was settled 
 in my choice and purpose. I was tempted, before I 
 reached my home, that I was not converted. And 
 I could only answer, " I do not feel as I expected. 
 I would not dare to say that I am certain that I am 
 converted ; but I shall never go back. My choice is 
 made. If I am not converted I shall not rest until 
 I know for certain that I am." Though I immedi- 
 ately gave my name to the church, and met in class 
 and attended secret prayer and all religious duties, 
 yet it was some months later before I was so blessed 
 in secret prayer as to banish all doubts. I was nine- 
 teen years old at this time. I was unacquainted 
 with Methodist literature, but I was hungry to 
 know the truth. I procured books and read with 
 avidity whatever pertained to the new life upon 
 which I had entered. I devoured all the literature 
 I could. I found the doctrine and the experience of 
 perfect love inculcated and exemplified. It was a 
 revelation to me, so unlike the doctrine of the 
 necessary indwelling of original sin, and the im- 
 possibility of living without " committing sin," in 
 
78 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 which, from childhood, I had been taught. I deter- 
 mined to test its truth, first, by a careful study of 
 the Scriptures. This being settled affirmatively, I 
 then resolved to test it by experience, if possible to 
 me, as I had learned that God is no respecter of 
 persons. Then followed a prolonged struggle for 
 more than nine months. I sought " with strong cry- 
 ing and tears" in my closet and in my barn, some- 
 times till midnight. 
 
 The Memoir of Mrs. Hester Ann Rogers was the 
 instrument of my deliverance. I was then a class- 
 leader, and I had been to meet my class and had 
 taken the little Memoir with me to read to my class 
 some of her spiritual letters, in order to stir up the 
 class to seek with me this great salvation. O how 
 my soul hungered and thirsted for this blessing! I 
 could truly say, " 'Tis worse than death my God to 
 love, and not my God alone." 
 
 Returning to my home, my (Presbyterian) mother 
 having retired, I lighted a candle and sat down on 
 the carpet in front of the stove, and opened upon a 
 page containing a quotation from Mr. Fletcher, in 
 which he illustrated the text, " Reckon ye your- 
 selves also to be dead indeed unto sin, and alive 
 unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." He 
 showed that as when we reckon with a creditor or 
 with our host, and have paid all, we reckon ourselves 
 free, "so now reckon with God — Jesus has paid 
 all, paid for thee, hath purchased thy pardon and 
 
REV. WILLIAM REDDY, D.D. 79 
 
 thy holiness, and it is now GocTs command, ' reckon 
 thyself dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God.' 
 
 begin (said he) to reckon now, and believe, be- 
 lieve, and continue to believe; for it is retained as it 
 is received, by faith alone. " The view thus opened 
 revealed to my eye the atonement — its provisions 
 for me, its freeness and its fullness — and that my be- 
 lieving was simply crediting the truth of salvation 
 as already wrought out in Christ. My believing 
 made nothing new; but what was " true in him be- 
 fore " became " true in me." I began simply to 
 reckon myself dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto 
 God through Jesus Christ my Saviour. The words 
 of St. John then had a meaning which I had not 
 previously seen : " Which thing is true in him and 
 in you, because the darkness is past and the true 
 light now shineth." This was the immediate effect: 
 
 1 seemed to myself to be reduced to a cipher, and 
 Christ filled the whole horizon of my vision ! O 
 how serene and peaceful I felt ! 
 
 " Of my Saviour possessed, 
 I was perfectly blessed, 
 As if filled with the fullness of love." 
 
 In this peaceful frame I retired to rest, reckoning 
 myself dead indeed unto sin. The thought was 
 suggested, " This will all pass off with the sleep of 
 the night ; " but I still reckoned, rested and rejoiced. 
 
80 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 (This occurred in 1835.) In the morning I con- 
 tinued the reckoning, and was free. 
 
 The next day after my deliverance, while ab- 
 sorbed in spiritual communings, the suggestion 
 came to me, " Are you willing to confess what the 
 Lord has done for you?" This was a startling 
 thought. I dropped my eye to look at the sugges- 
 tion, and immediately it was whispered, " If you 
 confess this blessing you will be called a ' Perfec- 
 tionist/ " and at once the odium and the reproach 
 which attached to others because of wild and fanat- 
 ical doctrines then regnant in the land seemed im- 
 pending over me. Then, further, it was suggested : 
 " You w r ill enjoy this but a little while, and then, if 
 you have made the confession and lost the blessing, 
 it will bring dishonor upon the blessed doctrine. " 
 Without realizing that these last suggestions came 
 from the enemy, I yielded, and determined to be 
 silent and endeavor to live it for a season first ; and 
 in an instant I found I had lost the blessing. I then 
 saw the snare in which I had been taken. I had 
 shrunk from " the reproach of the cross," and I had 
 distrusted the keeping power of my deliverer. O, 
 the sad reaction which came over me ; self-reproach, 
 loss of the keen relish, loss of confidence, and loss 
 of a sense of the presence of Jesus, which so de- 
 lightfully I had enjoyed. From being an heir I 
 was a bankrupt. But I resolved at once to recover 
 my forfeited inheritance in Christ. 
 
REV. WILLIAM REDDY, D.D. 8 1 
 
 But I was hampered ; yet I continued faithful to 
 duty, and sometimes was enabled in secret to trust 
 and claim the blessing. But when in public I was 
 afraid to confess it. I rounded my corners in my 
 testimony, and then would sink again. This fluc- 
 tuation continued about four years. Meantime I 
 preached the doctrine, and others thought that I 
 professed the blessing ; but there was a little reserve 
 and evasion. At last, one day, in my secret strug- 
 gling, I said: "O Lord, what does hinder me?" 
 And I was reminded of my distrust and shrinking in 
 regard to confession. I saw it and said, " If I live 
 to preach next Sabbath I will confess Jesus as my 
 full Saviour, whatever may be my feelings. ,, Sab- 
 bath came, and I preached Christ as a full Saviour. 
 In class-meeting came the test, and I ventured out 
 further in my testimony than I had ever done be- 
 fore, and I was correspondingly blest. 
 
 One brother, an exhorter, afterward a traveling 
 preacher, received the blessing in class-meeting 
 that day. At my afternoon appointment I ven- 
 tured still further, and was more explicit, and was 
 still more fully blest. In the evening service, in 
 class, I heard sung for the first time, " I've given 
 all for Christ, he's my all," etc., and it went through 
 me as a lightning-streak, and my whole being re- 
 sponded, 
 
 " I've given all for Christ, 
 He's my all." 
 
82 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 Three things I must record in justice to the facts 
 of my later experience. 
 
 I. The advantage which Satan gained over me in 
 the first instance has furnished a sort of fulcrum on 
 which he has rested his lever in his subsequent as- 
 saults and devices toward me, and too successfully 
 has he " hindered me " at the same point. It has 
 cost me great struggles to rise above the influence 
 and to assert my liberty. Hence my "interior life " 
 has fluctuated, and been obscured at various times. 
 The stem has been broken, but the root has never 
 been killed. I have always been in sympathy with 
 the theme and with those who are identified with 
 it. The more explicit I have been in my teaching 
 the clearer has been my own experience and the 
 more successful I have been 
 
 £. Whatever of success God has been pleased to 
 bestow on my labor and teaching I owe to that 
 early initiation into the u interior of the kingdom/' 
 and my adherence to the truth touching " the deep 
 things of God." 
 
 3. I am humbled in view of frequent lapses in 
 spirit and temper, though graciously restored and 
 still abiding in Christ. When I have contracted a 
 stain upon my white robe I have found no safety 
 or relief except by an immediate resort to the 
 cleansing fountain of atoning blood, and there to 
 wash the stain away. 
 
 Mr. Fletcher's experience in losing it several 
 
REV. WILLIAM REDDY, D.D. 83 
 
 times before he was established in it has helped me 
 in my recovery. I know the power of Jesus to 
 cleanse from all sin, and to " save to the uttermost/* 
 I know the Holy Ghost as a sanctifier, comforter 
 and guide. 
 
 My life has been one of delightful labor, of se- 
 vere and repeated trials and bereavements. These 
 words of St. Peter have been instructive, inspiring, 
 and assuring to me : " But the God of all grace, 
 who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ 
 Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, make 
 you perfect" (not in love ; that is supposed to have 
 been done, but) "make you perfect'* — that is, 
 " stablish, strengthen, settle you " — " establish you 
 unblamable in holiness before God unto the coming 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ. " 
 
 WILLIAM REDDY. 
 
 Syracuse, N. Y., July 6, 1887. 
 
84 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 IX. 
 
 REV. JAMES MUDGE, B.D. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 T WAS born at West Springfield, Mass., April 5,. 
 «£> 1844, my father — also James — being a member 
 of the New England Conference, of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church. 
 
 Having been baptized in infancy, and brought up 
 piously inside the fold from the beginning, in ac- 
 cordance with the ideas implied in that ordinance, 
 I was always accounted a very good boy, and my 
 conversion, which took place at the age of twelve, 
 in a quiet revival in the little village of South Har- 
 wich, Mass., September, 1856, was not attended by 
 any violent emotions. It was simply a determi- 
 nation, under the gentle stimulus of the special 
 interest attending the revival, to take up publicly 
 the position and perform the duties of an openly- 
 avowed Christian believer. Such I became. I 
 joined in full the old Common Street Church of 
 Lynn, Mass. (whither I had gone to prepare for 
 college), on my thirteenth birthday, April 5, 1857. 
 
 I faithfully attended to all Christian duties, speak- 
 ing and praying in class and prayer meetings, from 
 
REV. JAMES MUDGE, B.D. 85 
 
 which I was never absent, and serving as librarian 
 in the Sunday-school. I did not falter for a day. 
 or so much as once think of turning back, and my 
 joy in Jesus steadily increased as I came to know 
 him more. 
 
 Before long, however, as I continued my school 
 life and church life, I began to find that there were 
 certain things hard to do, and for the doing of 
 which I did not seem to possess sufficient strength. 
 I shrank from the cross involved in talking person- 
 ally about religion with my class-mates, and I fell 
 into the indulgence of a few doubtful practices in 
 reference to which my conscience was not wholly 
 at ease. I found myself sliding into a state of half- 
 way service, a state wherein I was conscious of 
 being only partially consecrated to God. 
 
 Happily I took alarm, after a little, and seeing 
 clearly that there was no permanent peace or power 
 to be had except in being decisively one thing or 
 another, my mind became greatly exercised on the 
 subject of FULL SALVATION. From reading a good 
 deal about this, and hearing it much spoken of at 
 my home and elsewhere, I came to have a strong 
 desire for its attainment. So when I went, in 
 August, i860, to the annual camp-meeting at East- 
 ham, on Cape Cod, as I was accustomed to do from 
 year to year, it was with the earnest hope that I 
 might receive this great blessing. 
 
 But Monday evening, August 13, the last night 
 
86 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 of the meeting, came without my having reached 
 any thing very definite. I had consecrated all, to 
 the best of my ability, but had failed to apprehend 
 that further necessity, the simple step of appropri- 
 ating faith. The Rev. Charles Nichols, in a private 
 conversation, made this matter plain, and so broke 
 the last link that bound me to the old life. Silently 
 and alone, as I bowed in prayer under the oak-trees, 
 I firmly made up my mind to take God at his word. 
 I determined that for the future, relying entirely 
 upon his strength, I would bear every cross and be 
 a whole-souled Christian. In a prayer-meeting at 
 the tent, between nine and ten that night, I made 
 open avowal that the blessing I had sought was 
 now obtained, claimed by simple faith. I felt no 
 sudden, overpowering bliss, but a deep peace as of 
 the conflict over and the harbor gained. 
 
 It was certainly a turning-point in my life from 
 which dates a distinct and decided change in my 
 experience. I returned to school a different indi- 
 vidual. There was no more shirking of duty. I 
 implicitly obeyed whatever I felt to be the orders 
 of God. I bore clear and frequent testimony to the 
 full salvation with which God had so wonderfully 
 enriched my soul. At college (Middletown, Conn.), 
 whither I soon went, 1861, I took a leading part in 
 aggressive religious work and in promoting the 
 highest type of spirituality. 
 
 My steps have been forward from that day in 
 
REV. JAMES MUDGE, B.D. 87 
 
 August, i860, to this. Each year, without excep- 
 tion, has been an improvement on its predecessors. 
 There has never been anything that could be called 
 a period of lapse or backsliding. Nevertheless, 
 after a time, both while in college and subsequently, 
 I gradually became aware that the work performed 
 upon me at the second blessing above described 
 was not so deep and thorough as I had supposed. 
 I was conscious of feelings which looked so sus- 
 piciously like ambition, envy, jealousy, impatience, 
 pride, discontent, and selfishness that I could not 
 feel perfectly at ease about the matter. The theory 
 in which I had been trained taught that all these 
 things had been entirely removed at the aforesaid 
 second blessing, and that what I felt now were only 
 infirmities and temptations, I tried to think them 
 so, but when I was most candid and honest with 
 myself the explanation failed to fully satisfy me. 
 In short, I grew more and more convinced as the 
 years went on, that in my case at least (and it seemed 
 to me also in the case of nearly if not quite all 
 others I met), after the second blessing there was 
 need of further consecrations from time to time, 
 deepening, extending, and perfecting the work. In 
 other words, I felt and saw that the sanctification 
 wrought at conversion and at the second blessing 
 was in both cases entire up to the light then given, 
 and no further. Perfect light was not given either 
 at one time or at the other, and hence as the light 
 
88 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 subsequently increased a subsequent corresponding 
 work in the heart remained to be done. 
 
 It is on this line that my experience has steadily 
 and gloriously progressed for the last twenty years. 
 There has been no year when it has not gone for- 
 ward, but there have been some years of unusually 
 marked advance, some seasons of very rich revela- 
 tions of God's presence and power. One such year 
 was that in which I went as a missionary to India, 
 1873, laying upon the altar all the fond ambitious 
 dreams and hopes of life, all the delights of home 
 and friends and native land, in a far more thorough 
 way than ever before ; a way not possible to me 
 before, because the actual pinch and stress of the 
 practical test had not previously been brought 
 within my reach. Another such season came during 
 my last full year in India, 1882," when, owing to 
 some very bitter trials, a fuller disclosure was made 
 to me than ever before as to some remains of the 
 self-life needing further attention. Sunday, July 9, 
 1882, alone in my room at Shahjahanpore, God gave 
 me such a baptism of love as I shall never forget to 
 all eternity. The availableness of God and the lov- 
 ableness of man were manifested to me in a way 
 indescribable, and the effect upon my life ever since 
 has been very marked. During the past six months 
 there has been almost as wonderful a development 
 of faith as there was of love five years ago. Unseen 
 things are now far more real than ever before. 
 
REV. JAMES MUDGE, B.D. 89 
 
 There is an intensity and fullness of spiritual life 
 before unknown, a settling down more thoroughly 
 into Christ and a putting him on more completely; 
 a greater oneness of will with God and a more ex- 
 act conformity to his image as well as more sim- 
 plicity and more humility. If I am asked whether 
 I consider that all these graces are now perfected 
 in me, and that the self-life is absolutely dead, no 
 minutest trace or smallest particle of it any more 
 visible to the all-penetrating gaze of the great 
 Searcher of hearts, I reply, I cannot tell. I have 
 thought so at various times. But when keener 
 tests were brought to bear I found reason to believe 
 that a little of self still lingered, calling for further 
 purification. Thus it may be now. I know that 
 to me but one thing seems desirable or valuable in 
 heaven or earth, and that is the WILL OF God. 
 And every thing which comes to me I welcome as 
 God's will for me. So far as I am any way con- 
 scious, my whole being, without the slightest reser- 
 vation or hesitation, goes out after him and abides 
 in him. Loving only what God loves, and willing 
 only what God wills, I find no room for disappoint- 
 ment, but only for delight and thanksgiving in all 
 he sends me. This is surely the land of Beulah, if 
 not something more. It is, indeed, heaven begun 
 below. " For to. me to live is Christ. " 
 
 JAMES MUDGE. 
 East Pepperell, Mass., April 5, 1887. 
 
90 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 X. 
 
 FRANCES. E. WILLARD. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 T WAS lying on my bed in my home at Evanston, 
 J? Illinois, in the crisis of typhoid fever. It was 
 one night in June, 1859. The doctor had said that 
 the crisis would soon arrive, and I had overheard 
 his words. Mother was watching in the next room. 
 My whole soul was intent, as two voices seemed to 
 speak within me, one of them saying, " My child, 
 give me thy heart. I called thee long by joy, I 
 call thee now by chastisement ; but I have called 
 thee always and only because I love thee with an 
 everlasting love." 
 
 The other said, " Surely you who are so resolute 
 and strong will not break down now because of 
 physical feebleness. You are a reasoner, and never 
 yet were you convinced of the reasonableness of 
 Christianity. Hold out now and you will feel 
 when you get well just as you used to feel." 
 
 One presence was to me warm, sunny, safe, with 
 an impression as of snowy wings ; the other cold, 
 dismal, dark, with the flutter of a bat. The con- 
 troversy did not seem brief; in my weakness such 
 
FRANCES E. WILLARD. 9 1 
 
 a strain would doubtless appear longer than it 
 really was. Solemnly, definitely, and with my whole 
 heart I said, not in spoken words, but in the deeper 
 language of consciousness, 
 
 " If God lets me get well I'll try to be a Chris- 
 tian girl." I was then nineteen years old. But 
 this resolve did not bring peace. 
 
 " You must at once declare this resolution," 
 said the inward voice. 
 
 Strange as it seems, and complete as had always 
 been my frankness toward my dear mother, far 
 beyond what is usual even between mother and 
 child, it cost me a greater humbling of my pride to 
 tell her than the resolution had cost of self-surren- 
 der, or than any other utterance of my whole life 
 has involved. After a hard battle, in which I lifted 
 up my soul to God for strength, I faintly called her 
 from the next room, and said, 
 
 " Mother, I wish to tell you that if God lets me 
 get well I'll try to be a Christian girl." 
 
 She took my hand, knelt beside my bed, and 
 wept and prayed. I then turned my face to the 
 wall and sweetly slept. . . . That winter we had 
 revival services in the old Methodist church at 
 Evanston. Dr. (now Bishop) Foster was president 
 of the university, and his sermons, with those of 
 Drs. Dempster, Bannister, and others, deeply 
 stirred my heart. I had convalesced slowly and 
 been out of town, so these meetings seemed my 
 
92 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 first public opportunity of declaring my new alle- 
 giance. The very first invitation to go forward, 
 kneel at the altar and be prayed for, was heeded. 
 Waiting for no one, counseling with no one, I went 
 alone along the aisle with my heart beating so 
 loudly I thought that I could see as well as hear it 
 beat as I moved forward. One of the most timid, 
 shrinking, sensitive natures, what it meant to me 
 to go forward thus, with my student friends gazing 
 upon me, can never be told. I had been known as 
 " skeptical," and prayers (of which I then spoke 
 lightly) had^been asked for me in the church the 
 year before. For fourteen nights in succession I 
 thus knelt at the altar, expecting some utter trans- 
 formation — some slice of heaven to be placed in my 
 inmost heart, as I have seen the box of valuables 
 placed in the corner-stone of a building and firmly 
 set, plastered over and fixed in its place forever. This 
 was what I had determined must be done, and was 
 loath to give it up. I prayed and agonized, but this 
 did not occur. 
 
 One night when I returned to my room baffled, 
 weary and discouraged, and knelt beside my bed, it 
 came to me quietly that this was not the way ; that 
 my " conversion," my " turning about," my religious 
 experience {re-li-gio, to bind again), had reached its 
 crisis on that summer night when I said " yes " to 
 God. A quiet certitude of this pervaded my con- 
 sciousness, and the next night I told the public con- 
 
FRANCES E. WILLARD. 93 
 
 gregation so, gave my name to the church as a 
 probationer, and after holding this relation for a 
 year — waiting for my sister Mary, who joined later, 
 to pass her six months* probation — I was baptized 
 and joined the church " in full connection. " Mean- 
 while I had regularly led, since that memorable June, 
 a prayerful life — which I had not done for some 
 months previous to that time ; studied my Bible, 
 and, as I believe, evinced by my daily life that I was 
 taking counsel of the heavenly powers. Prayer- 
 meeting, class-meeting (in which Rev. Dr. Hemen- 
 way was my beloved leader), and church services 
 were most pleasant to me, and I became an active 
 Christian worker, seeking to lead others to Christ. 
 For I had learned to think of and to believe in God 
 in terms of Jesus Christ. This had always been my 
 difficulty, as I believe it is that of so many. By 
 nature all spiritually-disposed people (and with the 
 exception of about six months of my life I was 
 always strongly that) are Unitarians, and my chief 
 mental difficulty has always been, and is to-day, 
 after all these years, to adjust myself to the idea 
 of three in one and one in three. But, while I 
 will not judge others, there is for me no final rest, 
 except as I translate the concept of God into the 
 nomenclature and personality of the New Testa- 
 ment. What Paul says of Christ is what I say; the 
 love John felt it is my dearest wish to cherish. 
 Six years passed by, during which I grew to 
 
94 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 love more and more the house of God and the fel- 
 lowship of the blessed Christian people who were 
 my brothers and sisters in the church. The first 
 bereavement of my life came to me three years after 
 I became a Christian, in the loss of my only sister, 
 Mary, whose life-long companionship had been a 
 living epistle to me, of conscientiousness and spirit- 
 uality. In her death she talked of Christ as "one 
 who held her by the hand," and she left us with a 
 smile fresh from the upper glory. A great spiritual 
 uplift came to me then, and her last message, " Sis- 
 ter, I want you to tell every body to be good," was 
 like a perfume and a prophecy within my soul. 
 This was in 1862. In 1866 Mrs. Bishop Hamline 
 came to our village and we were closely associated 
 in the work of the " American Methodist Ladies' 
 Centennial Association " that built Heck Hall. 
 This saintly woman placed in my hands the Life 
 of Hester Ann Rogers ; Life of Carvosso ; Life of 
 Mrs. Fletcher ; Wesley's Sermons on Christian Per- 
 fection^ and Mrs. Palmer's Guide to Holiness, I 
 had never seen any of these books before, but had 
 read Peck's Central Ldea of Christianity, and been 
 greatly interested in it. I had also heard saintly 
 testimonies in prayer-meeting, and, in a general 
 way, believed in the doctrine of holiness. But my 
 reading of these books, my talks and prayers with 
 Mrs. Hamline, that modern Mrs. Fletcher, deeply im- 
 pressed me. I began to desire and pray for holiness 
 
FRANCES E. WILLARD. 95 
 
 of heart. Soon after this, Dr. and Mrs. Phebe Palmer 
 came to Evanston as guests of Mrs. Hamline, and 
 for weeks they held meetings in our church. This 
 was in the winter of 1866; the precise date I can- 
 not give. One evening, early in their meetings, 
 when Mrs. Palmer had spoken with marvelous clear- 
 ness and power, and at the close those desirous of 
 entering into the higher Christian life had been asked 
 to kneel at the altar, another crisis came to me. It 
 was not so tremendous as the first, but it was one 
 that deeply left its impress on my spirit. My 
 dear father and a friend, whom we all loved and 
 honored, sat between me and the aisle — both 
 Christian men and greatly reverenced by me. My 
 mother sat beyond me. None of them moved. At 
 last I turned to my mother (who was converted and 
 joined the church when she was only twelve years 
 old) and whispered, " Will you go with me to the 
 altar?" She did not hesitate a minute, and the 
 two gentlemen moved out of the pew to let us pass, 
 but did not go themselves.* Kneeling in utter 
 self-abandonment I consecrated myself anew to 
 God. 
 
 My chief besetments were, as I thought, a specu- 
 lative mind, a hasty temper, a too ready tongue, and a 
 purpose to be a celebrated person. But in that hour 
 
 *A little later my father did publicly ask prayers, though an officer in the 
 church and a Christian from early manhood. His remarkable experience and 
 triumphant death in 1868 I have described in The Guide to Holiness. 
 
g6 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 of sincere self-examination I felt humiliated to find 
 that the simple bits of jewelry I wore, gold buttons, 
 rings and pin, all of them plain and "quiet" in 
 their style, came up to me as the separating causes 
 between my spirit and my Saviour. All this seemed 
 so unworthy of that sacre'd hour that I thought at 
 first it was a mere temptation. But the sense of it 
 remained so strong that I unconditionally yielded 
 my pretty little jewels, and great peace came to my 
 soul. I cannot describe the deep welling up of 
 joy that gradually possessed me. I was utterly free 
 from care. I was blithe as a bird that is good for 
 nothing except to sing. I did not ask myself" Is 
 this my duty?" but just intuitively knew what I 
 was called upon to do. The conscious, emotional 
 presence of Christ through the Holy Spirit held 
 me. I ran about upon his errands " just for love." 
 Life was a halcyon day. All my friends knew and 
 noticed the change, and I would not like to write 
 down the lovely things some of them said to me ; 
 but they did me no harm, for I was shut in with the 
 Lord. And yet, just then, there came, all unintended 
 and unlooked for, an experience of what I did not 
 then call sin, which I now believe to have been 
 wrong. My own realization of it was, however, so 
 imperfect that it did not mar my loyalty to Christ.. 
 In this holy, happy state, I engaged to go to Lima, 
 New York, and become preceptress of Genesee 
 Wesley an Seminary. Just before leaving, my hon- 
 
FRANCES E. WILLARD. 97 
 
 ored friend Dr. , who was visiting Governor 
 
 Evans, said to me one evening, 
 
 14 Sister Frank, there is a strange state of things 
 at Lima. The Free Methodists have done great 
 harm in Western New York by their excesses in 
 the doctrine and experience of holiness. You know 
 I believe thoroughly in and profess it, but just now 
 our Church has suffered so much from the ' Naza- 
 rites,' as they are called, that I fear if you speak and 
 act as zealously at Lima in this cause as you do 
 here it may make trouble. Hold to the expe- 
 rience, but be very careful in statement. " 
 
 So I went to Lima with these thoughts, and there 
 quite soon, in a prayer-meeting in the old seminary 
 chapel — my good friend, Prof. , whose subse- 
 quent experience has been such a blessed heritage 
 to Christians, replied to a student who rose to in- 
 quire about holiness, that it u was a subject we did 
 not mention here." 
 
 Young and docile-minded as I was, and revering 
 those two great and true men, I " kept still " until 
 I soon found I had nothing in particular to keep 
 still about ! The experience left me. But I think 
 my pupils of that year will bear me witness that for 
 their conversion and spiritual upbuilding I was con- 
 stantly at work. 
 
 Since then I have sat at the feet of every teacher 
 of holiness whom I could reach ; have read their 
 
 books and compared their views. I love and rev- 
 
 7 
 
98 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 erence and am greatly drawn toward all, and never 
 feel out of harmony with their spirit. Wonderful 
 uplifts come to me as I pass on — clearer views of 
 the life of God in the soul of man. Indeed, it is the 
 only life] and all my being sets toward it as the 
 rivers toward the sea. Celestial things grow dearer 
 to me ; the love of Christ is steadfast in my soul ; 
 the habitudes of a disciple sit more easily upon 
 me ; tenderness toward humanity and the lower 
 orders of being increases with the years. In the 
 temperance, labor and woman questions I see the 
 stirring of Christ's heart ; in the comradeship of 
 Christian work my spirit takes delight, and prayer 
 has become my atmosphere. But that sweet per- 
 vasiveness, that heaven in the soul, of which I came 
 to know in Mrs. Palmer's meeting, I do not feel. 
 
 I am afraid I love too well the good words of the 
 good concerning what J do ; that I have not the con- 
 trol of tongue and temper that I ought to have, 
 and that I do not answer to a good conscience in 
 the matter of taking sufficient physical exercise. 
 But God knows that I constantly lift up my heart for 
 conquest over them all, and my life is calm and 
 peaceful. 
 
 Just as frankly as I " think them over M have I 
 here written down the outline phenomena of my 
 spiritual life, hoping that it may do good and not 
 evil to those who read. „ 
 
 I am a strictly loyal and orthodox Methodist, 
 
FRANCES E. WILLARD. 99 
 
 but I find great good in all religions and in the 
 writings of those lofty and beautiful moralists who 
 are building better than they know, and all of whose 
 precepts blossom from the rich soil of the New 
 Testament. No word of faith in God or love 
 toward man is alien to my sympathy. The classic 
 ethics of Marcus Aurelius are dear to me, and 
 I have carried in my traveling outfit not only 
 a Kempis, but Epictetus and Plato. The mysticism 
 of Fenelon and Guyon, the sermons of Henry 
 Drummond and Beecher, the lofty precepts of Ralph 
 Waldo Emerson, all help me up and onward. I am 
 an eclectic in religious reading, friendship, and in- 
 spiration. My wide relationships and constant jour- 
 neyings would have made me so had I not the nat- 
 ural hospitality of mind that leads to this estate. 
 But, like the bee that gathers from many fragrant 
 gardens but flies home with his varied gains to the 
 same friendly and familiar hive, so I fly home to 
 the sweetness and sanctity of the old faith that has 
 been my shelter and solace so long. 
 
 " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit/' is the deepest 
 voice out of my soul. Receive it every instant, 
 voluntarily given back to thyself, and receive it in 
 the hour when I drop this earthly mantle, that I 
 wear to-day, and pass onward to the world invisible 
 but doubtless not far off. 
 
 FRANCES E. WILLARD. 
 
 Evanston, III., May 20, 1887. 
 
IOO FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 XI. 
 
 REV. G. D. WATSON, D.D. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 T WAS born in Accomac County, Virginia, March 
 J& 26, 1845. My father and mother, grandfather 
 and grandmother, were Methodists. I was raised 
 up in family prayer, attended Sabbath-school, and 
 went through many revivals of religion. I suppose 
 I was the black sheep of the flock ; the worst boy 
 of the whole six. I was exceedingly passionate, 
 self-willed, imperious and contrary. 
 
 My earliest convictions were when I was five or 
 six years old. One night father and mother went 
 to church and left us children alone, the eldest being 
 twelve or thirteen years of age. We sang " Rock 
 of Ages," and all got under conviction. I prayed 
 and cried, but did not know what ailed me. At 
 that early age I was called to preach. When I was 
 twelve or thirteen I sought religion, and after that 
 was at the altar at every revival ; but my will was 
 not thoroughly broken down. 
 
 I was converted in the Southern army, near Rich- 
 mond, Virginia, August 12, 1863. When I was con- 
 verted it was a new creation. I read the New Test- 
 ament through twice that year. I began to hold 
 prayer-meetings among the young men. My old 
 
REV. G. I). WATSON, D.D. 10 1 
 
 companions would meet me and knock my Bible 
 out of my hand and call me names. I had not 
 been saved a month until I found there was inbred 
 sin in my heart. I had never heard of holiness. If 
 some one had known how to lead me I think I 
 would have obtained the blessing then. 
 
 I went to the Biblical Institute at Concord, New 
 Hampshire, where I acquired a knowledge of the 
 rudiments of Hebrew, Greek, and theology. 
 
 I joined the Philadelphia Conference in 1868. I 
 went to the National Camp-meeting at Oakington 
 in 1869, and there first heard a sermon on entire 
 sanctification. I went to the altar seeking it, led 
 there through the influence of Alfred Cookman, who 
 was then a member of my Conference. I received a 
 great blessing, felt great tranquillity, and called it 
 perfect love. I went back and testified to holiness. 
 
 My presiding elder opposed the doctrine and rid- 
 iculed me for preaching in advance of my elders, 
 and so did others ; and under the pressure I did not 
 testify as often as I should. I did not preach 
 against it ; but I did not stand up for the doctrine, 
 and soon got back into my old state. I then de- 
 scended from a restful Christianity to a toilsome 
 Christianity, and also began using tobacco again. I 
 had hours of communion with God, but they were 
 unsteady ; and I had a great deal of soul twilight. 
 I loved to preach ; enjoyed a revival ; felt much en- 
 thusiasm in all the interests of my church ; felt at 
 
102 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 home in Christian society, and was often thrilled 
 with the harmony and grandeur of Bible truth. I 
 went into science and philosophy. For four or 
 five years I ate the strongest intellectual food that 
 the Church could furnish me. But I was starving 
 my heart by trying to feed my brain. All this time 
 I was trying to seek God. I would break down and 
 cry over my condition. God blessed my labors, and 
 souls were converted. But I was having a terrible 
 struggle with myself. I felt my whole life to be one 
 unending will struggle. I suffered more than tongue 
 can tell from melancholy. An unkind or unfavor- 
 able criticism, or an apparent neglect, would often 
 hurl my spirits into deepest gloom. I grew tired 
 of living in the public eye ; tired of routine work ; 
 but most tired of myself. My wife was sick, and I 
 could not bear sickness. I had a great deal of 
 trouble that others did not see was trouble, and yet 
 sorely tried me. 
 
 In October, 1876, I began to seek holiness again. 
 I was now filled with all sorts of notions. I said, I 
 will grow into it. Then I took up the repression 
 theory, then the Zinzendorf theory. I was like a 
 sailor, first setting his sails one way, then another. 
 
 One cannot always tell by the way a man talks 
 what he thinks. Three weeks before I was sancti- 
 fied I said in a preachers' meeting, "When God con- 
 verts a soul he makes it as pure as it ever will be," 
 and at the same time I was seeking holiness. 
 
REV. G. D. WATSON, D.D. IO3 
 
 About this time a local preacher came and said 
 to me : " Would you object to having a few holiness 
 people from Cincinnati come up and hold a three- 
 days' holiness- meeting ? " I told him I should be 
 very glad to have them come. On the 1st day of 
 December, 1876, the holiness-meeting began. That 
 night, after my wife had retired, I prayed for an 
 hour, as was my custom. Sometimes the next day 
 I would get mad, and my wife would say, " I am 
 ashamed of you. I am afraid you have not a bit of 
 religion, and you preaching as you do/' I felt 
 ashamed, and yet I would sometimes defend myself, 
 and then go away and pray and cry over it. But 
 that Friday night I was teachable as I lay on the 
 edge of the bed, with my hand under my cheek and 
 my face toward the door so as not to disturb any 
 one. Then the Lord began to talk to me. " Will 
 you do all for my glory?" " Yes, Lord." " Sup- 
 pose your wife will not believe and accept it, will 
 you receive it?" "Yes, Lord." "Will you con- 
 sent for me to make your family sick ; your wife 
 sick ? " " Yes, Lord ; give me the blessing." "Will 
 you let me take your health in my hand — give you 
 bronchitis or consumption ?" " Yes, Lord." "Any 
 time I send for you, will you come?" "Yes, Lord. 
 Any time you want me to die, I will consent to go." 
 " Will you consent to leave those large appoint- 
 ments you have been having? Will you consent to 
 take a poor appointment for me ? " " Yes, Lord, I 
 
104 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 will take the poorest appointment in Indiana if it 
 is thy will." (And there were some poor ones.) 
 " Suppose I want you to go and preach among the 
 Freedmen, will you go?" I said, " Yes, Lord, if 
 it is thy will." " Will you give up your tobacco, 
 that your body may be my clean temple? " I had 
 tried several times to give it up, but would go back 
 to it again. I said, " Yes, Lord, I will give it up. I 
 will do any thing. Give me the blessing." When 
 I got all through I dropped to sleep. I do not 
 know how it was, but when I waked up next morn- 
 ing I found the appetite for tobacco was gone. I 
 never have taken back that consecration. 
 
 The following Monday, December 4, at noon, 
 I went into my study and began reading the Script- 
 ures, with the first chapter of First Peter : " Peter, 
 an Apostle of Jesus Christ. . . . Elect according to 
 the pre-knowledge of God the Father through sanc- 
 tification of the Spirit." I stopped. " There," 
 said I, " that is sanctification." " Whom having 
 not seen ye love." " I do love thee, and I know 
 thou lovest me." " In whom, though now ye see 
 him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeak- 
 able and full of glory." As I uttered these words 
 God let loose a Niagara of salvation in my soul. I 
 walked back and forth shouting, Glory to God ! 
 After a time that subsided into a calm. 
 
 My next appointment was where the church was 
 very worldly. Still there were some lowly ones, as 
 
RE.V. G. D. WATSON, D.D. IC>5 
 
 there are in all churches. The Lord saved some 
 there; but I had a terrible time. I got rash and said 
 harsh things. I would say things that took the skin 
 off. Instead of encouraging and strengthening the 
 weak I would strike hard blows. Several times I 
 lost the witness of holiness and would have to fly 
 back to the fountain. Sometimes I acted wrong 
 with my wife. I tried to hurry her along and have 
 her get the experience as I did. It was not her na- 
 ture, and it could not be expected she would get it 
 as I did. Sometimes, perhaps, I would say things 
 to try to urge her along too fast ; then I would see 
 I had done wrong and ask her pardon. Then I 
 would go to the Lord and say, " Put me in the 
 fountain." 
 
 I went to another place, and began urging men 
 too fast. An old man, the one who led Bishop 
 Hamline into sanctification, came to me and put 
 his arms around me and said, " You are preaching 
 holiness in the wrong way." About that time I had 
 a sort of vision. I thought I saw a large flock of 
 sheep. Some were scratched with thorns, some 
 with the wool off; others had horns ; then there were 
 lambs. I was walking around among the sheep 
 with a club trying to keep them right. I saw I was 
 wrong. This was three years after I had been 
 cleansed. 
 
 Then I was in a hurry. I wanted to be as perfect 
 as Paul in all things, right away. 
 
106 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 The Lord has since melted me down and softened 
 my heart. I love all God's people. The devil has 
 tried, on one side, to make me too tame. I had been 
 too radical, and when I began to be too conservative 
 the Lord brought me back. I was like a pendulum 
 — first swinging too far this way, and then the Lord 
 
 would bring me back. 
 
 And now, after suffering many defeats, learning 
 many lessons in this Canaan of Perfect Love, I praise 
 God for the trials of my faith and for his marvelous 
 keeping power. I have learned that I must be an 
 uncompromising, unwavering witness to the cleans- 
 ing power of Christ ; that I must not make an idol 
 of holiness or holy people ; that I must not lean 
 upon my emotions, but must walk by faith, and 
 sometimes in seasons of darkness ; that Satan tempts 
 and tries me more directly and boldly than ever be- 
 fore ; that I must often be dead to things and plans 
 that are in themselves innocent ; must sow and reap, 
 or sow and let others reap. My heart breaks down 
 under a delicious burden of humble and adoring 
 praise to the wonderful Jesus. I have no will of my 
 own. My will is the will of my Father. A sense 
 of utter nothingness is growing upon me, together 
 with an increasing sense of the merit of Jesus. 
 
 G. D. W.ATSON. 
 Windsor, Fla., March 12, 1887. 
 
REV. B. F. CRARY, D.D. 107 
 
 XII. 
 
 REV. B. F. CRARY, D.D. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 T WAS born in Jennings County, Indiana, Decem- 
 <£) ber 12, 1821, and was converted to God in Jan- 
 uary, 1839, while at school at Pleasant Hill, Ohio. 
 The revival was under a most devoted Presbyte- 
 rian minister. My conversion was clear, and my 
 peace with God constant and wonderful for months. 
 I was admitted to the Indiana Conference in the 
 fall of 1845, an d had been for three years before 
 that under a strong impression that I ought to 
 preach. I had most of the time a consciousness of 
 pardoned sin and fellowship with God, but felt at 
 times great depression of spirits and doubt about 
 my duty. 
 
 I did not readily yield to my conviction that 
 I ought to preach, but instead pursued my own 
 chosen path and studied law, and was admitted 
 to practice. I always felt a degree of happiness 
 in talking to others about religious matters, and 
 was active in Christian work. In the summer of 
 1845 I yielded so far to the voice of the Spirit as 
 to submit my case to the will of the Church, intend- 
 ing to take the decision of the Conference as a final 
 
108 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 providential direction. I was admitted, and sent 
 to a large circuit. 
 
 My conversion had been instantaneous, and about 
 midnight, and the joy of it kept me up all night. 
 So I never doubted that, but had times of dense 
 darkness through which I fought with desperation, 
 holding to the fact of my regeneration and to 
 God's promise. In preaching I had times of great 
 triumph, and then again was overwhelmed with 
 confusion bordering on despair. It seemed as 
 though I was left to myself, and my weakness was 
 unaccountable and my doubts very distressing. 
 
 In 1847 I rea d with great care The Life of John 
 Fletcher, and also his treatise on Christian Perfec- 
 tion. I read them on horseback, studying, praying, 
 and often weeping over them and over mv OAvn 
 want of such experiences. In 1849, at a revival 
 meeting, in the month of July, while many souls 
 were seeking Christ and I was profoundly interested 
 and affected in talking with them, and was very 
 happy in my own soul, I was led into a faith and 
 an expereience I never had before. 
 
 While kneeling at the " mourners' bench " and 
 directing a poor sinner how to trust God, a devoted 
 sister, who knew my own convictions and experi- 
 ence, and who enjoyed perfect love herself, said to 
 me very quietly, " Brother Crary, you had better try 
 that yourself, and trust God for full salvation/' I 
 said then and there, " I will ; I do ; bless the Lord! " 
 
REV. B. F. CRARY, D.D. IO9 
 
 This meeting was near Bedford, Lawrence 
 County, Indiana. I had after that a constant 
 experience of the love of God in my soul, and 
 never afterward went back so far that I fell into 
 the doubts and depressions which before that gave 
 me so much trouble. It w r as a quiet, subdued, con- 
 stant peace and joy. I had afterward a time of long 
 and fearful trials, sickness, sorrow and death in my 
 family, stroke after stroke, until a shivering dread 
 of disease and death came over me. I did not fear 
 for myself, but for my remaining children and 
 friends. 
 
 I then learned the meaning of " Thy will be done," 
 and finally could say it and feel it. Before that I 
 thought I could and would do any thing for 
 Christ ; now I learned to suffer and bear it patiently. 
 That was another great victory, and I rejoiced and 
 was glad, and sang and triumphed. My faith 
 became fixed and I took to myself God's promises. 
 Then I entered into another state of temptation 
 from most unfortunate financial troubles. They 
 were small, but no less grievous. I never lost faith 
 in God nor gave up my trust in any way, but was 
 helpless, not, as I believed, from my own fault, and 
 I had to bear a most cruel weight of suspicion and 
 sometimes harsh accusations. I paid, month by 
 month, debts that oppressed me, and grieved in 
 silence and alone. This I had to bear through 
 weary years. On a small salary I contrived to save 
 
IIO FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 some and pay what I could. I dared not go in 
 debt any more nor borrow any thing. During this 
 time I could not explain, and I grew naturally cau- 
 tious about saying much concerning, my Christian 
 experience ; but I never denied God nor lost my 
 faith. 
 
 Intimate friends blamed me sometimes for being 
 so troubled over this matter. I found myself help- 
 less and broken over this most unfortunate affair. 
 I believe I had friends who could and would have 
 helped me, but I did not ask them nor tell them. 
 But now, having done what I could alone, and hav- 
 ing left all with God, still hoping, working, and 
 trusting, I find that my faith has grown into full 
 assurance, and my peace flows like a river. Good- 
 ness and mercy fill up the days and nights, and my 
 soul often cries out, " God is good ! " I never mis- 
 took regeneration for Christian perfection. Both 
 experiences were clear and definite epochs in 
 my life. I have always preached that the Christian 
 may, and indeed must, be sanctified wholly. At this 
 time, March 4, 1887, I find my faith simple and my 
 peace perfect. I put myself and my family in God's 
 hands with such a sweet and precious trust that 
 my burden seems all cast upon the Lord. I find 
 myself in the most joyful fellowship with God's 
 people. My whole soul overflows with gratitude 
 and praise. So I have enjoyed this gift and grace 
 thirty-eight years, during which I have never lost 
 
REV. B. F. CRARY, D.D. Ill 
 
 this sense of rest and peace with God, though at 
 times in the midst of manifold troubles. I had 
 lived, after my conversion, ten years in a state too 
 fluctuating and uncertain, and had sought perfect 
 love most earnestly at intervals, but did not find it 
 until I fully believed and obtained the baptism of 
 power through the Holy Ghost. I have never in 
 the least degree lost faith in my brethren in the 
 Church nor joined with those who indulged in fault- 
 finding and denunciations, but have lived in peace, 
 and done what I could to save souls, having the 
 sweetest fellowship with all Christians. 
 
 B. F. CRARY. 
 
 San Francisco, Cal., March 5, 1887. 
 
112 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 LUKE WOODARD. 
 
 (FRIEND.) 
 
 T WAS born at New Garden, Wayne County, 
 <D Indiana, on March 12, 1832. My parents were 
 members of the Society of Orthodox Friends ; were 
 exemplary, godly people ; and hence I enjoyed the 
 advantages of careful training. While I was, during 
 my youth and early manhood, preserved from im- 
 morality and kept a tender conscience, I was not 
 converted till my twenty-fifth year. 
 
 My awakening was sudden and very powerful. In- 
 dependent of any immediate instrumentality, "an 
 horror of great darkness fell upon " me at midnight. 
 I trembled violently at the sight of my guilty and 
 undone condition. I cried to the Lord, but, for 
 want of a clear understanding of the blessed doctrine 
 of justification by faith, I did not for some weeks 
 get the assurance that my sins were forgiven, and 
 find peace with God. But suddenly Christ revealed 
 himself to me, and I was overcome with the joyous 
 sense that I was accepted in him. 
 
 I soon began to tell others what the Lord had 
 done for me, and he opened the precious truths of 
 
LUKE WOODARD. 113 
 
 his word to me and called me to preach his Gospel. 
 u I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. " I 
 never broke the covenant I made to endeavor to be 
 faithful in this service, and he blessed me and en- 
 larged my gift, which, in due time, was indorsed by 
 the Church ; and I had some seals to my ministry. 
 
 Some years after I began to preach, while realizing 
 that I had not lost my hold on Christ or backslid- 
 den, I became conscious of internal conflicts like 
 that described in the 7th of Romans. I understood 
 the full meaning of the words, " If I do that I 
 would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that 
 dwelleth in me." By a combination of providential 
 occurrences I was brought to understand, in a meas- 
 ure, the doctrine of entire sanctification as a result 
 of the baptism with the Holy Ghost, received upon 
 condition of definite consecration to God and the 
 prayer of faith. Here Satan took advantage, and 
 presented the fearful responsibility involved in such 
 a consecration as I saw it to be, to give myself 
 wholly and forever to God. 
 
 I saw it meant more than to consecrate myself 
 to his service in any particular work. It was like 
 signing a blank sheet, leaving it for God to fill out 
 as he chose. The devil paraded before me the pos- 
 sibility that I might be called to go to Africa, and 
 this I feared I would not do, and he made me be- 
 lieve it was " better not to vow than to vow and 
 not pay." Now my agony of soul became great. 
 
114 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 It was like Bunyan's pilgrim's fight with Apollyon. 
 I many times groaned, " O, wretched man that I 
 am ! who shall deliver me from this bodv of death ?" 
 
 At length, while engaged with some brethren in 
 Michigan in holding some meetings in the autumn 
 of 1871, I heard yet more definite instruction on this 
 most important feature of Christian experience. 
 Early in the morning of October 31 of this year, in 
 the city of Adrian, as I was communing with my 
 own heart upon my bed alone, I made this resolve: 
 " I will go to the meeting this morning, and there, it 
 may be, I will receive the longed-for baptism," when 
 something seemed to whisper, " Why not now?" 
 And at once I responded, u And why not now?" 
 And with that I seemed to sink into the will of God. 
 I hardly knew how, but O, such a flood of glory as 
 covered me! My whole being seemed permeated 
 with divine power and joy unspeakable. I wept 
 tears of joy. That morning I made a formal con- 
 secration at the family altar, and went to the meet- 
 ing and testified to what God had done for my 
 soul. 
 
 The first test I had was the suggestion that when 
 I returned home I should say nothing about it, or 
 speak of it only in general terms and let people 
 judge from my life. But I soon saw that my cov- 
 enant of consecration meant to speak for God as his 
 witness, and he gave me the victory. I have not 
 been free from various tests and severe temptations, 
 
LUKE WOODARD. 115 
 
 but the gracious Lord has been with me, and while 
 there have been times of momentary wavering yet 
 at no time have I lapsed entirely from this expe- 
 rience, and the Lord has taught me many precious 
 lessons of his truth, and blessed to my greater es- 
 tablishment in holiness some very severe trials ; and 
 through the exceeding riches of his grace I can now 
 say the blood cleanseth and the Comforter abideth 
 within my heart. Glory to the Father, Son, and 
 
 Holy Ghost ! 
 
 LUKE WOODARD. 
 
 Glens P'alls, N.Y.,/une 18, 1887. 
 
Il6 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 REV. JOHN PARKER. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 THERE were no circumstances in my early 
 life especially friendly to the doctrine or ex- 
 perience of entire sanctification, except that the 
 Divine Spirit called me in early years to the Chris- 
 tian life and made me very susceptible to religious 
 influences. So that at ten years of age I had a 
 fair apprehension of the nature of sin, a dread of 
 God's displeasure because of it, and a strong desire 
 to be guided to the knowledge of salvation. But 
 mine was a home without prayer, or Bible, or godly 
 influence, yet I prayed and lived in daily fear of the 
 consequences of sin from childhood. 
 
 The Wesleyan Sabbath-schools of England, to 
 which I owe much of my early convictions and 
 character, were supplied with the best library- 
 books relating to the Christian life, and until my 
 sixteenth year I read these with great avidity. 
 At the age of sixteen I was thoroughly con- 
 verted, after three months of diligent seeking; so 
 converted as to be forever spoiled for a mixed 
 life. My hunger for good books was now greatly 
 increased. I read the writings of Wesley, Fletcher, 
 
REV. JOHN PARKER. 117 
 
 Clark, and the biographies of early Methodism. 
 I was deeply convicted for the blessing of a clean 
 heart, and obtained it in six months after mv 
 conversion — while reading The Life of Hester Ann 
 Rogers. I did not, of course, understand the phi- 
 losophy of the doctrine, or its relation to my 
 needs ; but, daily beset by the most violent an- 
 tagonisms to the Christian life, I felt the need of 
 something which would give me greater strength 
 and rest. 
 
 At twelve years of age, while working in the cot- 
 ton mill, I was severely injured, so that during the 
 four following years I suffered greatly from pain 
 and poverty. Out of this came the advantage to 
 me of a lowly mind — a simple, confiding heart, 
 ready to receive the truth and light of the Spirit. 
 By severe discipline from my earliest years I had 
 also obtained self-reliance, and courage to attempt 
 and pursue to the end whatever I felt to be my 
 duty. Thus had God prepared me to welcome this 
 self-crucifying doctrine and life of perfect love. I 
 had little to give up, for my estate and prospects 
 were exceedingly limited. 
 
 But I gave myself intelligently, deliberately, for- 
 ever. And my heart was open as the flower to 
 welcome the light and warmth of divine love. It 
 was morning at last ; the night had seemed long to 
 me, for I had no happy childhood ; the light had 
 come, and how I welcomed it ! I now entered 
 
Il8 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 the Beulah-land life, without any purpose to 
 experiment on the subject of full salvation by 
 avowing it only while favorable and convenient. 
 My consecration was, like my marriage in later 
 years, for life, without drift, but with growing love. 
 And after forty-six years of its experience and 
 profession, and often of reproach, my purpose is 
 unchanged. For with me the logic of the doctrine 
 is very short, sharp and direct. Either I can be 
 holy or I cannot. If I can I must, for God wills 
 it. He cannot approve in me the opposite of his will. 
 Fellowship with him, therefore, is impossible with- 
 out obedience, for less than obedience is sin. God 
 offers to make me holy through my faith in the 
 atonement of Christ, and to maintain in my heart 
 and life that holiness by the ministry and inreign- 
 ing of the Holy Spirit. Less than glad acceptance 
 of his grace is rejection, and rejection is sin. I can- 
 not be a sinning child of God and heir of heaven. 
 But I must be his child ; I am in great earnest to 
 get to heaven. He approved in his servants of old 
 their plain delaration that they sought a heavenly 
 country. I love his approval more than I love the 
 light of my eyes. Mine shall be a plain declara- 
 tion daily that I am going to heaven. Then I 
 must be holy. I can be holy. I will. I rely this 
 moment on his power to make me clean, and he 
 doeth it ; by faith I walk, live, and sing in liberty, 
 victory and joy. 
 
REV. JOHN PARKER. 119 
 
 " How did I become established ? " It is diffi- 
 cult to answer this question. For nothing in my 
 life of consecration supplies me with a starting- 
 point for thought. As well ask the obedient and 
 loving child of a wise and devoted parent, " How 
 do you manage to keep from running away from 
 home ? " Or the godly and devoted husband, " How 
 do you keep from drift?" Each would say what I 
 want to say, " I never have thought of drift." Love 
 knows nothing of drift, or vacillation, or weariness, 
 in its constancy. My only answer is, I saw the 
 King and loved him perfectly, and with my increas- 
 ing years my vision of God is enlarged ; so is my 
 love. My heart was defiled, even after my thor- 
 ough conversion. He promised to make me clean 
 and then to put his Holy Spirit within the heart 
 he had cleansed. He did it. He doeth it now. 
 He keeps me satisfied, but O, so hungry. " They 
 that know thy name," thy perfections, "will put 
 their trust in thee." I know his name. He deigns 
 to reveal himself to me every day ; and thus I am 
 abased in my own eyes, but exalted in his. He 
 keeps me clean and strong and free. 
 
 It takes an all-consuming and separating love to 
 settle and establish heart and mind in the fullness 
 of gospel liberty and rest, and to die to unholy 
 ambition for pre-eminence or popular favor. God 
 could not trust me with distinction or popular 
 favor or wealth. He has trusted me with his com- 
 
120 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 munion and kept me lowly, and I am satisfied. 
 The books I prefer do not suggest doubt ; I have 
 enough of that without feeding it. The society I 
 seek does not weaken me by dissipation. The 
 unfriendliness of the average church to the subject 
 gives me pain, but no fear. I have stood alone 
 many, many times ; I can do so to the end. I have 
 reached a place in Christian life where my own 
 company is a pleasure to me, for my conscience 
 attests my sincerity and the Holy Spirit attests that 
 I am clean through the blood. There are forty- 
 six years of this life behind me, an eternity before 
 me. I am established ; He has done it. " Rooted 
 and built up in him, established in the faith, abound- 
 ing therein with thanksgiving/' Hallelujah ! 
 
 JOHN PARKER. 
 Hamden, Connecticut, July n, 1887. 
 
CAPT. R. KELSO CARTER. 121 
 
 XV. 
 
 CAPT. R. KELSO CARTER.* 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 FROM the very hour of my birth, in 1849, I was 
 surrounded by the best Christian influence. 
 My father has stood for nearly half a century in the 
 foremost rank of aggressive Christian workers in the 
 city of Baltimore, and by his side I had ever the 
 example of one of those sweet, gentle, patient, lov- 
 ing mothers, whose presence seems always to reflect 
 a little of heaven's light upon the darkness of this 
 world. 
 
 I cannot remember when I was not subject to 
 deep convictions of sin and sensible of my duty 
 toward God ; yet, as a school-boy, I wandered far 
 from the path of truth until the age of fifteen, when, 
 under the blessed influences of the cadet prayer- 
 meeting in the Pennsylvania Military Academy, I 
 made a profession of faith in Jesus and united with 
 the Presbyterian Church — my parents' denomina- 
 tion. 
 
 I was happy, but I made the common mistake of 
 our day ; I did not forsake my old companions and 
 habits, and the inevitable result followed. For four- 
 
 * For twenty years of the Pennsylvania Military Academy. 
 
122 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 teen years I lived the up-and-down experience so 
 bitterly familiar to the average church member. I 
 attended church, went to the prayer-meeting, took 
 part in it quite frequently, spoke on religious sub- 
 jects and on temperance, always from a gospel 
 stand-point ; and unquestionably I grew in grace to 
 some extent. I never enjoyed myself so much as 
 when I was working in Mr. Moody's inquiry-meet- 
 ings in Baltimore, in 1878-9; and yet, even up to 
 that time, I was continually slipping and falling be- 
 fore tempers or desires, in some form or other. 
 Confession and prayer brought forgiveness, and I 
 was very sure that I was God's child, so that when 
 asked, " Are you a Christian ? " I never thought of 
 answering in any other way than, " Yes, thank the 
 Lord." 
 
 But all this time there was a tremendous convic- 
 tion of a great inward need, a cry from my soul that 
 God would take away from my heart these internal 
 desires toward evil. I had never read a line on the 
 subject ; had never heard a sermon on the Holy 
 Ghost or upon the subject of sanctification ; had 
 never been to a camp-meeting nor entered a Meth- 
 odist church more than three times. But my soul 
 cried out for complete deliverance, and God's tin- 
 limited promises stood out like stars above me. 
 But I was not ready and willing to pay the price. 
 
 In the summer of 1879, m y heart, which had been 
 chronically diseased for seven years, resisting the 
 
CAPT. R. KELSO CARTER. 1 23 
 
 remedies of the ablest physicians, and refusing to 
 grow better even after three years spent in sheep- 
 ranching among the mountains of California, sud- 
 denly broke down so seriously as to bring me to the 
 very verge of the grave. I had heard a little of the 
 "prayer of faith " for healing, but I felt persuaded 
 that it would border upon blasphemy to ask God 
 for a strength which I did not propose to use wholly 
 for him ; and hence it was that this desire for 
 health only increased the sense of the necessity for 
 a great and entire consecration. 
 
 Kneeling alone in my mother's room in Balti- 
 more, in the month of July, I made a consecration 
 that covered every thing. I have never been com- 
 pelled to renew it, for it included all. To die at 
 once — a young man ; to live and suffer ; to live and 
 recover ; to be, to do, to suffer any thing for Jesus — 
 this was my consecration. All doubtful things were 
 swept aside and a large margin left on God's side. 
 I knew in my soul that I meant every word ; and 
 so I have never had any doubts about it since. A 
 certain sense of peace and quietness gradually came 
 over me. I never had any sudden overpowering 
 manifestation ; and I found the whole Bible won- 
 derfully open to my vision and marvelously satisfy- 
 ing to my soul, as it had never been before. I 
 seemed to live in a constant prayer ; and in fact I 
 have lived this way nearly all the time that has 
 elapsed since then. 
 
124 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 Feeling now all the more impressed, with God's 
 healing promises I sought to find Jehovah Rophi ; 
 and, in order to obey the word like a little child, I 
 concluded to go to Boston and ask prayer and 
 anointing at the hands of Dr. Cullis. I was terribly 
 weak, but I went. All this experience has been 
 written and published at length elsewhere, and I 
 will only add that I returned in three days, walking 
 by faith, and not by feeling, resumed my college 
 work in September, and at once engaged in all kinds 
 of religious work. I was healed by the power of 
 God alone. Praise the Lord ! 
 
 Within two months I united with the Methodist 
 Church, owing to certain providential circumstances; 
 and here I began to encounter the terminology 
 which was exceedingly unpleasant to my ear, trained 
 among the Presbyterians. But I promptly settled 
 all these difficulties by declaring that I accepted all 
 the terms found in Scripture, joined in all scriptural 
 prayer, and aimed at every scriptural target with the 
 expectation of hitting it by the infinite grace of 
 God. 
 
 Perhaps the crucial point was passed in this way: 
 Undervaluing the deep peace in my soul and the 
 great hunger for the word which continually pos- 
 sessed me, not seeing that these were evidences of 
 the Spirit's presence, I yearned and cried after some 
 great manifestation. But one night, after lying in 
 an agony of supplication upon my floor for hours, I 
 
CAPT. R. KELSO CARTER. 125 
 
 rose up, and, lifting my hand to heaven, said, " O, 
 Lord, if I never feci any more than I do now to the 
 day of judgment I will believe on thy word that 
 Jesus saves me now. If the children of Israel could 
 shout over Jericho when not one stone in its walls 
 had fallen, I can do the same." And I began say- 
 ing aloud, " Jesus saves me now! Jesus saves me 
 now ! " 
 
 God, the angels, and the devils heard it. But 
 my audience all understood that I meant " sanctified 
 wholly ; " so the Lord got the honor of a complete 
 work even from ignorant lips, and gradually the con- 
 viction grew in my soul that it was really true. This 
 inward conviction or persuasion I soon recognized as 
 the longed-for "witness of the Spirit," and then, for 
 the first time, I knew those thrills of heavenly joy 
 which have been styled the " effusions of the Holy 
 Ghost." 
 
 From this point in my life a most distinct expe- 
 rience began. All sense of duty- service vanished, 
 and a glad love-service took its place. All those 
 desperate conflicts with the will of God, which we 
 are pleased to call our " crushing trials," " sore 
 afflictions," resolved themselves into the dear Lord's 
 wisely-chosen methods for enlarging the vessel in 
 order that he might pour into it more of his grace 
 and love. Growth was marvelous and perma7ient — 
 a wonderful difference from the years when so much 
 time was occupied in rebuilding. There was no 
 
126 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 desert life here ; no despondency ; no cloud of un- 
 belief; no sense of condemnation. The most 
 marked inward leanings toward sin which had bit- 
 terly cursed my Christian life were so conspicuous 
 by their absence that in wonder and amazement I 
 cried, " Is any thing too hard for the Lord ? " and 
 was greatly established by the thought that if God 
 could take away one such besetting sin could he not 
 remove two ? And if two, why not all? 
 
 Here I wish to be very clear. Let not the reader 
 suppose that during these years there has been no 
 occasion for self-examination or of disappointment 
 at my record. All along the line I was frequently 
 surprised at new discoveries. Things which had 
 seemed perfectly right and proper became objects 
 of inward suspicion. Something suggested, " You 
 ought not to do this or to speak so ; it is not right/' 
 But whenever this occurred a prompt willingness to 
 turn on the most searching light was always felt ; 
 and if, after a thorough examination in the light of 
 the word, the thing appeared to smell of evil, it was 
 always cheerfully relinquished, no inward desire to go 
 counter to the will of God being experienced. In 
 fact, this has always been the great test question : 
 Is it the will of God ? His will, when known, is 
 mine always ; not from duty, but from free, spon- 
 taneous choice. Praise the Lord ! 
 
 I have had some trouble with my body at times, 
 for the body is very imperious. The necessity of 
 
CAPT. R. KELSO CARTER. 12? 
 
 "keeping the body under " has been always felt. 
 Let none misunderstand me here. I do not mean 
 the " body of sin," or " the carnal mind." That 
 was burned up, and its desires against God's will 
 eradicated, by the consuming fire of the Holy Ghost 
 when God wholly sanctified my soul as related 
 above. But this physical body, with its various ap- 
 petites and nerves, must be kept under all the time. 
 Not one of these appetites nor one of these nerves 
 is in any degree sinful or impure in itself. It is only 
 the wrong use of these which constitutes sin and 
 brings condemnation. There is not a particle of sin 
 in my feeling hunger, or thirst, or the sexual appe- 
 tite, for God has made them all, and his work is 
 good. But there is sin in indulging any of them in 
 a wrong way or in entertaining or possessing the 
 real desire to so indulge them. If my nerves are 
 overtaxed I must and will feel nervous; there is no 
 sin in that. But I must not experience irritation 
 and anger in the heart as an accompaniment, for in 
 this lies sin. I may be, and am, when such emer- 
 gencies arise, tempted to think of such indulgences 
 or tempers ; but the temptation is not sin if the 
 heart answers not again. 
 
 This lesson was rather difficult to learn ; and while 
 studying it I was at various times a little confused 
 as to the exact power and shades of meaning in the 
 terminology of Bible holiness ; but the blessed 
 Spirit brought me through in safety ; and now I see 
 
128 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 it as, perhaps, the most important lesson of my life 
 thus far, and as the testing-ground where so many 
 sanctified Christians are led astray. 
 
 My experience is my own, and acknowledges no 
 human master, and, therefore, I cannot stop in a 
 certain rut, I must go farther. From the very first 
 I conceived a deep, and even desperate, determi- 
 nation to " follow on to know the Lord." No pen 
 can emphasize these words as they were emphasized 
 in my soul. Year by year passed away, and an 
 almost infinite yearning for a deeper manifestation 
 of my Lord filled my very being. Suffice it to say 
 that at Mountain Lake Park Camp-meeting, in July, 
 1885, this prayer of years was answered. I can 
 hardly tell how, except that my Saviour became so 
 inexpressibly real to me that all language fails to 
 describe it. It has seemed these two years as 
 though my friends, my wife, even myself, are less 
 real to me than my adorable Saviour, my living 
 Father, my blessed Comforter. After about eight 
 months some small degree of this marvelous near- 
 ness to Jesus seemed to me to pass away, I think 
 through a slowness to follow the Spirit with refer- 
 ence to a certain point. But in July, 1887, while 
 again at Mountain Lake Park, the blessed Holy 
 Ghost wonderfully and entirely healed me of a very 
 serious attack of brain prostration resulting from 
 various causes, largely unavoidable ; and with this 
 restoration all seems to be regained. 
 
CAPT. R. KELSO CARTER. 1 29 
 
 To-day I am a sinner saved by grace, a repentant 
 rebel fully pardoned by my God, a law-breaker jus- 
 tified freely by the " Judge of all the earth/' the 
 offspring of evil adopted into the family of the Lord, 
 a trusting believer cleansed from inbred sin by the 
 blood of Jesus Christ and sanctified wholly by the 
 Holy Ghost, a child of the King, healed of my dis- 
 eases by the Great Physician. I am beset, yet full 
 of hope ; tempted and tried most sorely, yet strong 
 in the Lord ; tossed about by circumstances, yet on 
 the Rock of Ages ; enduring misrepresentation and 
 slander and suspicion, yet praising God for the 
 victory Jesus wins over all ; daily realizing more 
 and more my own nothingness and the wonderful 
 ALLNESS of Jesus. Praise the Lord ! 
 
 R. KELSO CARTER. 
 
 Yardville, N. J., August 11, 1887. 
 9 
 
130 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 MARY R. DENMAN. 
 
 (EPISCOPALIAN.) 
 
 WHEN my pastor asked me, at the age of fifteen, 
 to be confirmed, I said, " I would like to do 
 so, but have not met with a change of heart." His 
 answer was : " Whence did the desire to become a 
 Christian originate ? Certainly it did not come from 
 the Evil One." Hence he advised me to join the 
 Church. I have always been glad that I followed his 
 advice, for when tempted as a young lady to go into 
 the gayety of the world I felt the restraint, particu- 
 larly during the season of Lent. As a Church 
 member, when the communion season came around, 
 I must partake of the Lord's Supper, and in some 
 way I always tried to prepare my heart to receive 
 it. After I was married I tried hard to induce my 
 husband to join the Church, as I had done, but 
 we were of the world and w r orldly. There came a 
 time when I realized that I did not love God with 
 all my heart, as I was taught every Sunday it was 
 my duty to do. I w r as simple-minded enough to go 
 on my knees and ask God to teach me to love him 
 with all my heart. He took me at my word and 
 
MARY R. DENMAN. 131 
 
 taught me to do so. Soon after this, upon my re- 
 turn to New Orleans, I thought the church mem- 
 bers had changed, for they all seemed so willing 
 to talk on the subject of religion. The change was 
 with me. This I consider was the date of my con- 
 version. I was soon tested to know if I loved God 
 with all my heart. He took to himself a precious 
 daughter when she was only about four months old. 
 This affliction I bore cheerfully, feeling that God 
 would bless it to my husband, which he did, and 
 when, six years afterward, he took him to himself, 
 I claimed the promises given to the widow. He has 
 been true to his promise for over twenty years. I 
 still had a longing in my heart for something more 
 satisfying. While in this state of mind I learned 
 that a number of Christian people were coming 
 to our city to hold a series of meetings. They 
 were called " higher-life Christians." I heard one 
 minister in these meetings tell of the " Rest of Faith " 
 he had in his soul. My spirit responded, " That is 
 what I want ;" and, knowing that God was not a re- 
 specter of persons, I believed he would give it to 
 me if I would meet the conditions. I sought and 
 found this grace. I delighted in this new joy, and, 
 desiring to meet with Christians who enjoyed the 
 same blessing, I was invited to go to a camp- 
 meeting. My answer was " No ; I am not a Meth- 
 odist." But the friend said, " This is not a Methodist 
 camp-meeting ; it is a national one, where all denom- 
 
132 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 inations meet." I concluded to go with my friend, 
 she making all arrangements for me. I praise God 
 for Sea Cliff camp-meeting. Having the great joy 
 of the Saviour in my heart I did not feel the need 
 of having the roots of bitterness taken out. But I 
 soon saw there was something more for me, and that 
 God was talking to my heart and questioning me, 
 to see if my will was in subjection to his. One test 
 was, "Would I establish the family altar on my re- 
 turn home ? " I was in the habit of praying with 
 my children, but establishing the family altar would 
 involve the cross of praying before visitors, and some 
 very worldly ones. I had said " yes M to this, when 
 in the night came deeper questions, preparing me 
 for temperance work. " Would I speak for Him 
 before large congregations if my children and every 
 friend on earth turned against me ? " This I could 
 not answer, for I felt it would cut me off from all my 
 earthly supports. Still I found it must be answered, 
 or I would never know peace again. I called Sister 
 Amanda Smith, the colored evangelist, who was in 
 the next tent. She, being awake, put a blanket 
 around her and came to my bed-side and prayed 
 with me, making very clear to my mind that God 
 would not ask any thing of me that he would not 
 give me strength to perform. When my will was 
 broken a wondrous peace came into my soul. I have 
 often been asked " Has this peace remained all these 
 fifteen years? and how have you kept it?" My 
 
MARY R. DENMAN. 1 33 
 
 answer is, by saying " I will " to God, and then do- 
 ing his bidding. Very soon I was called to work for 
 him in the temperance cause. I began by being 
 willing to lead in ladies' prayer-meetings. After 
 seven years' constant work for the Master, when the 
 women would not release me, the dear Lord did, by 
 laying me by with paralysis. 
 
 But O how wondrously He has healed me since 
 in answer to prayer ! How could I let go my faith 
 in the Almighty arm which did and continues to 
 do so much for me? I do not say that I have been 
 freed from trial or temptation. These I never ex- 
 pect to be free from while in the body. But I can 
 say, with St. Paul, " that with the temptation a way 
 of escape " has always been made, and I have not 
 lost the deep peace in my soul, I do not remember 
 that I have ever felt power in myself to stand alone, 
 and therefore have always looked to and expected 
 my precious Saviour /to keep me. He has never 
 forsaken me. There was a time for about two days 
 when Satan tried to make me think I had not re- 
 ceived the baptism of the Holy Ghost, because I 
 had not had just such an experience as another 
 dear friend. But just as soon as I got quiet before 
 God, the Holy Spirit carried me back in mind to 
 that night on Sea Cliff camp-ground, and I have 
 never doubted since. I do not always experience 
 the same joy, but it is there, down in my heart, like 
 the water in the bosom of the earth waiting the 
 
134 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 opportunity of the driven well. If I were to be 
 
 disobedient to his loving command, and leave him, 
 
 and look for my pleasures in other fields than he 
 
 lays out for me, I should expect to lose my peace. 
 
 But why should I do so, when he is my all and in 
 
 all? 
 
 MARY R. DENMAN. 
 
 Newark, N. J., October 12, 1887. 
 
ANNA M. HAMMER. 1 35 
 
 XVII. 
 
 ANNA M. HAMMER. 
 
 (EPISCOPALIAN). 
 
 T WAS born in the town of Pottsville, Pa., in the 
 jP year 1840. My father was a Quaker and my 
 mother an Episcopalian, an earnest Christian 
 woman, and one who early taught my young lips to 
 pray and to value the word of God. At the age of 
 nine years I became greatly convicted of sin. I 
 cried in agony at the thought of death, but finally 
 the impression wore away. I have no recollection 
 of any other especial experience till I reached the 
 age of fourteen, when a young man (soon to be- 
 come a relative), an earnest Christian and member 
 of the Episcopal Church, urged me to give my 
 heart to God and join the Church. My dear mother 
 mingled her prayers with his, and at that point I 
 date my conversion. We removed immediately to 
 the town of Wilkesbarre, Pa., and I there came 
 under the pastorate of the Rev. George D. Miles, 
 of blessed memory, rector of the Episcopal church, 
 and a truly evangelical man. The means of grace 
 under which I was brought at that time did much 
 to form my Christian character and implanted in 
 
I36 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 my heart a love for the pure and true and holy, 
 which not even the claims of a fashionable, gay life, 
 were able to entirely dissipate ; for I did enter into 
 a life of amusement, which was a great grief to my 
 dear pastor and spiritual friend. This gay life was 
 not one of unmixed pleasure, for I keenly felt all 
 the way through that my spiritual life was suffering 
 because of it. After my marriage I gave up dancing, 
 to please my husband, who strongly disapproved 
 of that amusement. In 1864 my husband moved 
 to Newark, N. J., and after a few years we came 
 under the ministry of Rev. Dr. William R. Nichol- 
 son (now Bishop Nicholson), and under his earnest, 
 spiritual teachings I found my soul greatly quick- 
 ened. The entire loss of fortune and the death of 
 my first-born son, and also of an elder brother, all 
 within a few short years, served to draw me nearer 
 to the Lord, and my Christian life grew sweeter 
 and deeper. There came a time, in 1874, when, 
 having become a member of the Reformed Episco- 
 pal Church, I attended a female prayer-meeting held 
 every week in the vestry-room. Upon one occasion, 
 a very rainy day, I found but one dear woman at 
 the meeting, and she told me how mightily the 
 Lord had blessed her soul, so that she cried out to 
 him to stay his hand. I was completely captivated 
 by this account. I never before had heard such an 
 experience. The next day I was lying upon my 
 bed resting and thinking over the wonderful story 
 
ANNA M. HAMMER. 1 37 
 
 of the day before, when the thought came, "God is 
 no respecter of persons ; what he has done for her 
 he can and will do for me." I knelt and prayed, 
 and asked for just what I wanted, and O, how God 
 did pour his Holy Spirit into my soul and give such 
 a love for souls and hunger for work ! I have 
 always spoken of that baptism as " my anointing 
 for service. " I then consecrated myself fully to 
 the Lord, and especially to the temperance work. 
 In this state I lived an outwardly consecrated, puri- 
 fied life, having the grace given me to prevent the 
 outward manifestation of anger and kindred sins, 
 so that even some of my most intimate friends, 
 who enjoyed the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a 
 distinct second experience, thought I enjoyed the 
 same blessing. I sometimes agreed with them, but 
 oftener distrusted having had any such experi- 
 ence. Finally a great hunger of soul came upon 
 me. I knew there were in the corners of my heart 
 things known only to myself and God, and I real- 
 ized that nothing short of the " anointing which 
 abideth " would satisfy my soul and fit me fully as 
 a worker for God. In July, 1880, the first assembly 
 of the Woman's Holiness Camp-meeting was held 
 at Camp Tabor, New Jersey. I went there with the 
 fixed intention to get all the Lord had in reserve 
 for me. I was under deep conviction of soul, and 
 for three days I was in an agony of tears, as one 
 friend said, " dying hard." I held out on points 
 
138 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 which now seem very ridiculous, but then they as- 
 sumed proportions which appeared serious enough. 
 But all this time the hunger and the aching in- 
 creased till I could no longer resist the pleadings of 
 the Spirit, and then came my second consecration. 
 I said, " Lord, all I have or all I ever will have; all 
 I am or all I ever may be ; all I know or all I ever 
 may know, I put now upon the altar." I knew the 
 " altar sanctified the gift," and I bound my offering 
 to the " horns of the altar " and waited for the fire. 
 For hours, forgetting all my prejudices, I was pros- 
 trate in the straw. The meeting broke up, but 
 there I remained, a few friends around awaiting 
 the result. I am glad no one talked to me ; my 
 soul was in quiet communion with God. Finally a 
 dear minister of God came upon the ground, and, 
 seeing the unusual gathering, asked what it meant. 
 Some one replied, "An honest soul seeking the 
 blessing," and another added, " She is an Episco- 
 palian." With great heartiness he responded, 
 " Well, he is the God and Father of us all." Then 
 the fatherhood of God peculiarly struck me, and 
 I raised my head to confirm the thought, when 
 with the action the anointing came. I was shaken 
 as with a violent ague ; over and over and over 
 again the shock came, finally leaving me so pros- 
 trated that I was helped over to the cottage, where 
 I lay on the lounge for hours bathed in glory. 
 From that hour my Christian life has been victory. 
 
ANNA M. HAMMER. 1 39 
 
 I have grown year by year in the depth of experi- 
 ence which becomes richer and deeper and sweeter 
 as the years roll on. I have made mistakes, but 
 they are under the blood ; I have had temptations, 
 but early I learned that they were not sin unless 
 yielded to,. But O, the delights of a life wholly 
 given up to God ! 
 
 I have no doubt as to my conversion, that I was 
 "born again ;" that, being " dead in trespasses and 
 sins," I was made " alive in God." At the time of 
 my anointing by the Holy Spirit I was living a con- 
 secrated life of faith and active service. My sanc- 
 tification was a second actual experience, and from 
 that time my life has been changed, is deeper, 
 stronger, steadier, sweeter, richer. The life I have 
 lived for the last seven years has been wonderfully 
 free from condemnation. I have more than once 
 done ignorantly that for which I sorrowed after- 
 ward, but handed it immediately over to the Lord 
 and felt the blood applied. Praise the Lord ! 
 
 ANNA M. HAMMER. 
 
 Newark, N. J., July 18, 1887. 
 
140 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 REV..B. K. PEIRCE, D.D. 
 
 (METHODIST. 
 
 T WAS born February 3, 18 19, in Royalton, 
 J& Windsor County, Vermont. 
 
 I was, I think, soundly converted on the Island 
 of Nantucket, when a boy of about twelve years of 
 age. But, not joining the Church, I lost my spirit- 
 ual life and fell away from the Saviour, although I 
 did not give up prayer. I was renewed in Lynn, 
 Mass., in a revival in my father's church when about 
 seventeen, in 1836. My evidence of the new birth 
 came very gradually, but very clearly, while I was 
 attempting to point the way to a seeking friend. 
 
 Soon after this I went to Wesleyan University, 
 Middletown, Conn. My collegiate course was a 
 severe trial to my faith, but in the last year at 
 college (1841) I began to preach, joining the New 
 England Conference in 1842, and was blessed with 
 seasons of revival. But, although I had no doubt 
 of my previous sonship in the family of God, my 
 experience did not take on a clear, positive, well- 
 rounded form until after that Memorable Night 
 of prayer in the second year of my ministry, 1843, 
 
REV. B. K. PETRCE, D.D. 141 
 
 at Newburyport, Mass. The social meetings in my 
 church were interesting; the congregations increased. 
 But there began to be felt a need of deep relig- 
 ious interest, and the expediency of calling in an 
 evangelist was discussed. On this Sunday evening 
 after service I returned to my study. I was alone. 
 The family was absent. I had become greatly de- 
 pressed at not seeing the spiritual outcome to my 
 labors which I desired. I said, " Why need the 
 church send for another minister ? Is the missing 
 link in myself ?" These questions brought me to 
 my knees. I saw my spiritual life to be defective. 
 I had not a sufficiently clear personal apprehension 
 of the whole plan of salvation to preach effectually 
 to others. Inward anxiety became positive distress. 
 Some more definite and pronounced era of the 
 divine life must be reached. Prayer was blind at 
 first, and I was in great trouble. I was shut in on 
 all sides and helpless. I prayed for deliverance 
 even if it cost my life, but the prison walls only 
 drew closer and more fearfully around me. In the 
 midst of this turbulence of emotion and purposeless 
 prayer, it occurred to me, that, like the Jews, I was 
 seeking a sign, something miraculous, when God had 
 made a distinct promise. These words then came 
 to me: " If ye, then, being evil, know how to give 
 good things to your children, how much more shall 
 your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to 
 them that ask him." Here was the promise of a 
 
142 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 divine Guide. Still upon my knees, in this light I 
 wrote out an entire surrender of myself, body, soul 
 and substance, and all pertaining to me, and sought 
 to weigh every word before I solemnly signed my 
 name to it. Now I said: "If we confess our sins, 
 he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to 
 cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I grasped the 
 simple, all-embracing truth as never before. In 
 tearful trust I cried, 
 
 " Lord, I am lost, but Jesus died." 
 
 Unconscious of the passage of time, and still on 
 my knees, in sweet and blissful iteration I said over 
 and over again : " He forgives ; he cleanses from all 
 unrighteousness ! " I hardly knew when I left the 
 kneeling posture, but I found myself walking the 
 room in the early morning hours, saying, " He 
 cleanses from all unrighteousness!" while an inde- 
 scribable calmness and peace pervaded my whole 
 being. 
 
 This baptism of the Spirit was a great inspiration 
 in my pulpit and pastoral work. It illuminated the 
 Holy Scriptures and enriched the daily life. It 
 made the whole plan of salvation very clear and 
 positive. I walked in the light and comfort of this 
 great blessing for a long period, and have never lost 
 a vivid conception of the process by which it was 
 secured. 
 
 While chaplain in the House of Refuge, Randall's 
 Island, N. Y., somewhere about the year 1868, I 
 
REV. B. K. PEIRCE, D.D. 143 
 
 came again to a remarkable hungering and thirsting 
 for the cleansing of my soul and its full occupation 
 by the Holy Spirit. To this end I devoted a night 
 of prayer and came again into great peace and an 
 absorption of divine things. I could not read any 
 thing but the Bible and devout books, and literally 
 continued in prayer without ceasing. In this state 
 I walked for many months. Its fervor wore off 
 somewhat, the absolute absorption in spiritual 
 things abated, and I again took a general inter- 
 est in affairs. My reading became more miscella- 
 neous. I did not keep up that incessant commun- 
 ion and loving fellowship with the Saviour, but I 
 did not lose the hold I had gained upon the double 
 office of Christ as pardoning sin and cleansing 
 from all unrighteousness. I was almost unfitted for 
 every thing besides at first, but it was a blessed and 
 a heavenly state. I try now to live in the sight of 
 it. Nothing is so sweet or dear to me as the con- 
 templation of my Saviour in his person and offices, 
 and I long for nothing more than to be like him in 
 
 spirit and life. 
 
 B. K. PEIRCE. 
 Boston, Mass., March 3, 1887. 
 
144 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 HANNAH WHITALL SMITH. 
 
 (FRIEND.) 
 
 T WAS born in Philadelphia, Pa., second month, 
 £> seventh day, 1832. I was converted in Phila- 
 delphia, in 1856, in my twenty-sixth year. My con- 
 version was very clear and unmistakable. After 
 long years of legal striving, in which I resorted in 
 vain to every expedient my soul could devise for 
 gaining the favor of God and the forgiveness of all 
 my sins, I was taught to see my own utter helpless- 
 ness in the matter, and to trust entirely and only to 
 Christ to save me. I knew that* I was born again ; 
 and "never from that time have I doubted this. 
 Never have I had a moment's fear about my ac- 
 ceptance with God, or my present possession of 
 eternal life. 
 
 As time passed on the Lord graciously led me 
 into the knowledge of much truth. My guarded 
 education in the Society of Friends, of which I was 
 at that time a member, had already separated me 
 very much from the vain fashions and amusements 
 of the world, and my chief interests were all cen- 
 tered around the religion of Jesus Christ, as the 
 
HANNAH WHITALL SMITH. 145 
 
 only object really worthy of serious thought or at- 
 tention. 
 
 But my heart was ill at ease. That I grew in 
 knowledge I could not deny; but neither could I 
 deny that I did not grow in grace ; and, at the end 
 of eight years of my Christian life, I was forced to 
 make the sorrowful admission that I had not even 
 as much power over sin as when I was first con- 
 verted. In the presence of temptation, I found 
 myself weakness itself. It was not my outward 
 walk that caused me sorrow, though I can see now 
 that that was far from what it ought to have been ; 
 but it was the sins of my heart that troubled me — 
 coldness, deadness, want of Christian love, intellect- 
 ual apprehension of truth without any corresponding 
 moral effects, roots of bitterness, want of a meek 
 and quiet spirit — all those inward sins over which 
 the children of God are so often forced to mourn. 
 
 I could not but see, that, although I was not 
 under law, but under grace, still sin had more or 
 less dominion over me, and I felt that I did not 
 come up to the Bible standard. The Christian life 
 contemplated there was a life of victory and tri- 
 umph ; my life was one of failure and defeat. The 
 commands there given to be holy, to be conformed 
 to the image of Christ, to be blameless and harm- 
 less, the sons of God without rebuke, seemed almost 
 a mockery to me, so utterly impossible did I find it 
 
 to attain to any such standard ; for I made very 
 10 
 
146 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 earnest efforts after it. At times I went through 
 agonies of conflict in my efforts to bring about a 
 different state of things. I resolved, I prayed, I 
 wrestled, I strove ; I lashed myself up into the be- 
 lief that all I held most dear in life could continue 
 to be mine only as I attained to more faithfulness 
 and devotedness of walk. When sickness came upon 
 any whom I loved, many were the vows recorded 
 in the depths of my soul that, if God would but 
 spare their lives, I would henceforth serve him with 
 all my heart. But all was in vain, and, it seemed, 
 even worse than vain. " When I would do good, evil 
 was present with me ; " and I could see no hope of 
 deliverance except in death, which, by destroying 
 the " body of sin " to which I was chained, would 
 thus break the yoke of my bondage. 
 
 At times some new discovery of the truth of God 
 in the Bible would seem for awhile to carry me 
 above temptation, and to make me more than con- 
 queror. And my heart would rejoice at the thought 
 that now at last I had found the secret of living, 
 and that henceforth my continued defeats would be 
 turned into continued victories. But after a while, 
 as the aspect of truth, in which I had been rejoic- 
 ing, became familiar to me, I found to my bitter 
 sorrow that it seemed to lose its power, and I 
 was left as helpless as ever, only under deeper 
 condemnation, because of the increased responsi- 
 bilities of increased knowledge. 
 
HANNAH WHITALL SMITH. 1 47 
 
 There was also another thing that troubled me. 
 I had been taught, and I found in the Bible, that 
 it was my privilege to know the indwelling of the 
 Holy Spirit as a leader and guide to my soul, 
 and I believed that he was indeed indwelling in 
 me, but I felt that experimentally I knew very 
 little about his teaching, and had no actual con- 
 sciousness of his presence. That it would be an 
 inestimable blessing thus to know him, I realized 
 more and more, as I discovered the utter power- 
 lessness of my own wisdom and judgment to guide 
 me aright, and felt increasingly that, only as the 
 Spirit accompanied and energized my service, was 
 it ever of any avail. But here, too, all my efforts 
 seemed worse than useless, and I found myself 
 only involved in continually increasing perplexity 
 and darkness. 
 
 At times the belief forced itself upon me that 
 all Christians were not like me; that the lives of 
 some were full of a degree of devotedness and 
 depth of communion to which I was a stranger ; 
 and I wondered what their secret could be. But, 
 supposing it could consist in nothing but their 
 greater watchfulness and earnestness, I knew of no 
 resource but to seek to redouble all my efforts, and 
 to go through the same weary round of conflict and 
 struggle again, only, of course, to meet with the 
 same bitter defeat. 
 
 Such was my life ; and, in spite of much outward 
 
148 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 earnestness and devotedness, I felt it to be a failure. 
 Often I said to myself that if this was all the Gospel 
 of Christ had for me, it was a bitterly disappointing 
 thing. For though I never doubted the fact of my 
 being a child of God, justified and forgiven, a pos- 
 sessor of eternal life, and an heir of a heavenly in- 
 heritance, still, when my heart condemned me — and 
 this was almost continually — I could not have con- 
 fidence toward God, and I was not happy. Heaven 
 itself seemed to lose its charm to the heart that was 
 afar off from God. 
 
 I began to long after holiness. I began to groan 
 under the bondage to sin in which I was still held. 
 My whole heart panted after entire conformity to 
 the will of God, and unhindered communion with 
 him. But so thoroughly convinced was I that no 
 efforts, or resolutions, or prayers of my own would 
 be of any avail, and so ignorant was I of any other 
 way, that I was almost ready to give up in despair. 
 
 In this time of sore need (1863) God threw into 
 my company some whose experience seemed to be 
 very different from mine. They declared that they 
 had discovered a " way of holiness/' wherein the 
 redeemed soul might live and walk in abiding 
 peace, and might be made "more than conqueror'* 
 through the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 I asked them their secret, and they replied, " It 
 is simply in ceasing from all efforts of our own and 
 in trusting the Lord to make us holy." 
 
HANNAH WHITALL SMITH. 149 
 
 Never shall I forget the astonishment this answer 
 gave me. " What ! " I said, " do you really mean that 
 you have ceased from your own efforts altogether, 
 in your daily living, and that you do nothing but 
 trust the Lord? And does he actually and truly 
 make you conquerors ? " 
 
 " Yes," was the reply, " the Lord does it all. 
 We abandon ourselves to him. We do not even 
 try to live our lives ourselves; but we abide in 
 him, and he lives in us. He works in us to will 
 and to do of his good pleasure, and we hold our 
 peace." 
 
 Like a revelation the glorious possibilities of a 
 life such as this flashed upon me ; but the idea was 
 too new and wonderful for me to grasp. I had 
 never thought of Christ as being such a Saviour as 
 I now heard him described to be. I had known, 
 indeed, that he gave me life in the first place as a 
 free gift, without I myself being able to do one 
 single thing toward obtaining it, except to believe 
 and to receive. But that he should now live my 
 life for me in the same way, without my being able 
 to do any thing except believe and receive, sur- 
 passed my utmost conceptions. I had learned how 
 to trust him for the forgiveness of my sins ; but I 
 had always trusted myself to conquer them. I had 
 seen the sad error of legality as regarded my re- e 
 demption ; but I was altogether legal in my 
 thoughts as regarded my daily holy living. I had 
 
150 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 never dreamed of trusting the Lord for that, and I 
 did not know how to do it. 
 
 So I went to work harder than ever. Over and 
 over again I tried to dedicate myself to God. I 
 sought to bind my will with chains of adamant, and 
 to present it a holy offering before the Lord. I lay 
 awake whole nights to wrestle in prayer that God 
 would grant me the blessing he had granted these 
 other Christians. I did every thing, in short, but 
 the one thing needful. I could not believe ; I did 
 not trust ; and all else was worse than useless. But 
 perhaps not altogether useless ; for it taught me 
 very effectually one necessary lesson, and that was 
 my own utter and absolute helplessness. 
 
 At last, however, I saw clearly that I was indeed 
 truly nothing; that I needed the Lord just as ab- 
 solutely for my daily living as I had needed him in 
 the first place to give me life. I discovered that I 
 was just as unable to govern my temper or my 
 tongue for five minutes, as-I had been long ago to 
 convert my soul. I found out, in short, the simple 
 truth, which I ought to have learned long before, 
 that without Christ I could do nothing ; absolutely 
 nothing. I saw that all my efforts, instead of help- 
 ing, had only hindered the work. 
 
 Then I began anew to search the Scriptures. I 
 found that the salvation he had died to procure was 
 declared to be a perfect salvation, and that he was 
 able to save to the very uttermost. I found that he 
 
HANNAH WHITALL SMITH. 151 
 
 offered himself to me as my life, and that he wanted 
 to come into my heart and take full possession there 
 and subdue all things to himself. I felt that this 
 was indeed a gospel to meet my utmost needs, that 
 such a salvation as this would satisfy the widest 
 limit of my longings, and unspeakably I desired to 
 appropriate it as mine. 
 
 But here I was met by another enemy, whom I 
 had thought forever slain. It seemed as if I could 
 not trust the Lord ; as if I was actually afraid to do 
 so. Legality had been met and conquered, but un- 
 belief still remained, and threatened to shut me out 
 altogether from the promised land of rest. Although 
 God had declared the Lord Jesus to be a perfect 
 Saviour, sufficient for my daily and hourly needs, 
 I could not believe he would really prove to be so. 
 It seemed too great a trust to repose in any one, 
 even in the divine Saviour. But in his infinite love 
 he broke down this last remaining barrier also. 
 
 He sent to our house (in 1864) a young man 
 whose soul was in great darkness because of doubts 
 concerning his salvation. It was my privilege to 
 point him to Jesus Christ as a Saviour just suited 
 to meet his needs, and to tell him of the complete- 
 ness and present reality of the salvation purchased 
 by him. And as I talked to him and set forth the 
 boundless love of Christ, and his divine power to 
 save to the uttermost all who come unto God by 
 him, my heart was rebuked for my own unbelief. 
 
152 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 Could it be that the Saviour, who was willing to 
 forgive the sins of the rebel, would be unwilling to 
 deliver the longing soul of one, who loved him, and 
 panted to follow him, from the present power and 
 dominion of sin ? Was I to urge another to believe 
 that his prayers for forgiveness were answered, when 
 I did not believe that my prayers for conformity to 
 the image of Christ were, or ever would be? My 
 heart shrank back at the thought of such inconsist- 
 ency, and the last barrier of unbelief was broken 
 down. The Lord revealed himself to me as so 
 worthy of my utmost confidence, that I could not 
 help trusting him. He showed himself to me as a 
 perfect, and complete, and present Saviour, and I 
 abandoned my whole self to his care ; telling him 
 that I was utterly helpless, that I could not feel, 
 nor think, nor act, for one moment as I ought to 
 do, and that he must do it all for me — all. I con- 
 fessed my own absolute inability to dedicate myself 
 to his service, my powerlessness to submit my will 
 to his ; and I cast myself, as it were, headlong into 
 the ocean of his love, to have all these things ac- 
 complished in me by his almighty working. I 
 trusted him utterly and entirely. I took him for 
 my Saviour from the daily power of sin with as 
 naked a faith as I once took him for my Saviour 
 from its guilt. I believed the truth that he was my 
 practical sanctification, as well as my justification, 
 and that he not only could save me, and would save 
 
HANNAH WHITALL SMITH. 1 53 
 
 me, but that he did. The Lord Jesus Christ be- 
 came my present Saviour, and my soul found rest 
 at last, such a rest that no words can describe it — 
 rest from all its legal strivings, rest from all its 
 weary conflicts, rest from all its bitter failures. The 
 secret of holiness was revealed to me, and that secret 
 was Christ. Christ made unto me wisdom, and 
 righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. 
 
 At first my faith was but a weak and wavering 
 one. Almost tremblingly I hung on to Christ mo- 
 ment by moment, saying continually in my heart, 
 " Lord, I trust thee, I trust thee. Look, Lord, I 
 am trusting thee." But I found to my astonishment 
 that it was a practical reality that he did deliver me. 
 When temptation came, I did not try to conquer it 
 myself, but at once handed it over to him, saying, 
 "Lord Jesus, save me from this sin. I cannot save 
 myself, but thou canst and wilt, and I trust thee." 
 Then I left it with him, and he fought for me, while 
 I stood by and held my peace. And he always 
 came off conqueror. 
 
 Thus daily my faith grew, and I was able to 
 apprehend more and more of that for which I was 
 apprehended of Christ Jesus. I longed to grasp 
 the utmost limits of the deliverance from sin, pur- 
 chased for me by the death of Christ. Just what 
 this limit was I did not understand, either in its 
 nature or extent, but I could leave it all to him. 
 I did not indeed know what was the meaning of 
 
154 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 that scripture wherein we are told that the body of 
 sin was destroyed by the crucifixion of Christ, and 
 where we are commanded therefore to reckon our- 
 selves dead to sin. (Rom. 6.) But I did know 
 that it meant something which would enable us 
 henceforth not to serve sin, but to bring forth fruit 
 unto holiness ; and also that it must mean some- 
 thing which would please and satisfy God. And, 
 since this was God's purpose in the death of Christ, 
 I saw that it must be my privilege to enter into it, 
 although in myself so vile and unworthy. And 
 I saw, also, since Christ had finished the work God 
 gave him to do, that my part in it could only be 
 to accept the gift from his hands ; and that that 
 gift, therefore, was mine the moment I trusted 
 God for it. I did therefore trust him definitely for 
 this very thing; and I, even I, was enabled to 
 " reckon myself dead indeed unto sin, but alive 
 unto God in Jesus Christ my Lord." 
 
 Thus that flesh, which I had discovered to be so 
 utterly corrupt and incapable of improvement, I now 
 found could be reckoned to be dead and conse- 
 quently abandoned. Necessarily I had at first only 
 a very imperfect comprehension of what this meant, 
 but practically I found, from the very first, that 
 just in proportion as by faith I did abandon the 
 flesh or carnal nature in me, and reckon it to be 
 dead, so also did the flesh lose its power over me to 
 conquer or enslave. 
 
HANNAH WHITALL SMITH. 1 55 
 
 And " according to my faith " I have found it 
 done unto me, ever since. Whenever I, by faith, 
 reckon myself to be dead, I find I am practically 
 dead. In putting off the old man by faith, and 
 putting on the new man, I find that the one is 
 actually put off and the other actually put on. My 
 soul has entered into that interior rest or " keeping 
 of Sabbaths" which the apostle Paul, in Heb. 4. 9, 
 declares " remaineth for the people of God ; " and I 
 am dwelling in the " peaceable habitations " and 
 " quiet resting places/' promised in Isaiah 32. 18. 
 Not that there are no conflicts. Ah, no ! But the 
 battle is no longer mine, but Christ's. 
 
 And now, if I am asked what is my life ; with a 
 deep and abiding sense of my own nothingness I 
 can only answer that, in so far as I am faithful, 
 Christ is now my life. Once I had truth about him, 
 but now I have himself! Once I tried to live in 
 my new nature, independent of him ; now I am 
 joined to him in a oneness that is indescribable, 
 knowing that I have in truth no other life but his, 
 and seeking more and more to live only there. 
 Not that I never leave this blessed abiding-place, 
 and walk in the flesh again, to my unspeakable re- 
 regret. But Christ is always the same, and the way 
 of access by faith is always open ; and, thanks be 
 unto God, he is faithful to keep that which I have 
 committed to him, and more and more does he con- 
 firm my soul steadfast and immovable in him. 
 
156 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 All the former period of my Christian course 
 seems comparatively wasted. I was a child of God, 
 it is true ; but my growth was stinted, and my 
 stature feeble. But when this secret of faith was 
 revealed to me, I began to grow ; and the dedica- 
 tion, which was before impossible to me, became 
 the very joy of my heart. 
 
 Since the time of my entrance into this life I 
 have gone through many " experiences " and have 
 outgrown many " dogmas ; " and in some respects 
 my " views " have greatly changed. But, through 
 all, my attitude of soul has remained unchanged. I 
 have sought to keep a continual spirit of surrender 
 and trust, and have tried to be obedient to the best 
 light I knew. When I have failed, it has been the 
 result of either disobedience or lack of faith, and it 
 has needed only a return to the place of perfect 
 surrender and entire trust, to restore my soul again 
 to its place of rest. At every moment, when sur- 
 render and trust have been active, the Lord has 
 never failed to respond with his wondrous grace. 
 Moreover, he has never failed to make even my 
 mistakes work together for my eternal good. In 
 short, I have found it to be more and more true, 
 every day of my life, that Christ is a complete and 
 ever-present Saviour, and that if I but commit all 
 my interests to him, I have as a dear child once 
 said, nothing to do now but "just to mind.." To 
 say " Thy will be done" seems to me, more and 
 
HANNAH WHITALL SMITH. 157 
 
 more, the sweetest song of the soul. The deepest 
 longings of my whole being are met and satisfied in 
 God. He is enough ! 
 
 Believing, resting, abiding, obeying — these are my 
 part ; he does all the rest. What heights and depths 
 of love, what infinite tenderness of care, what wise 
 lovingness of discipline, what grandeur of keeping, 
 what wonders of revealing, what strength in weak- 
 ness, what comfort in sorrow, what light in dark- 
 ness, what easing of burdens I have found ; what a 
 God, and what a Saviour, no words can tell ! 
 
 "Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there 
 is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." 
 
 HANNAH WHITALL SMITH. 
 Philadelphia, Pa., April 19, 1887. 
 
158 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 XX. 
 
 ASAHEL H. HUSSEY. 
 
 (FRIEND.) 
 
 T WAS born November 23, 1833, in the village 
 JD of Mount Pleasant, Ohio. 
 
 My parents were Friends or Quakers, which gave 
 me a birthright membership in that Church of 
 which I am a member. 
 
 I had a guarded religious education, was early- 
 taught by my mother to say " Now I lay me down 
 to sleep," and often had deep religious convictions. 
 
 From a child I have been a faithful attendant on 
 public worship, and when very young acknowl- 
 edged God. I had no Sabbath-school privileges 
 and but little practical instruction in the way of 
 salvation, but had a covenant with God, and tried 
 to serve him. 
 
 I have no distinct recollection of my conversion, 
 but remember I often prayed for forgiveness of 
 sins, and at times joy and peace followed. While 
 this was the case I had such struggles with my car- 
 nal nature that I doubted my conversion. I often 
 prayed earnestly for deliverance, and sought it by 
 the deeds of the law, knowing no other way. 
 
ASAHEL H. HUSSEY. 159 
 
 I had been taught, by reading our standard 
 works, to believe in Christian perfection or holiness, 
 and once wrote an article upon the subject, and 
 would argue for it. 
 
 As I became actively engaged in Sabbath-school 
 work I was painfully, conscious of a need in my 
 soul not supplied — an aching void which led me 
 to earnestly cry unto God for deliverance. But it 
 never came. I had many years of this kind of life — 
 doubts and fears— careless and indifferent, then 
 faithful and peaceful — but no steady walk with God. 
 
 In the providence of Gqd I met with a friend 
 who spoke of having received the blessing of holi- 
 ness. She told of the light and joy and peace 
 which filled her soul, and while she talked my heart 
 burned within me for a like experience, and I began 
 to seek for it in real earnest. 
 
 She left me a little tract to read — " Out of dark- 
 ness into the kingdom " — by R. P. Smith, which 
 gave me some help. 
 
 Being often in company with D. B. Updegraff, 
 who had received the experience of holiness a short 
 time before, I now sought help from him, and one 
 Sabbath afternoon in June, 1870, as we were talk- 
 ing upon this experience, I found clearly the way 
 to obtain it. I learned if I made a complete con- 
 secration of all to God, and then simply believed 
 that God accepted the offering, that the altar would 
 sanctify the gift the moment it was put thereon — I 
 
l6o FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 would have the blessing of sanctification. This 
 seemed easy and simple. I concluded to try it, but, 
 for fear of failure, I thought best to say nothing 
 about it. As my consecration was complete 
 I had peace in it, but nothing definite came in my 
 experience until a few days after, when I confessed 
 to a very intimate friend, in the presence of others, 
 " That my all was the Lord's." Then a flood of joy 
 and peace filled my soul. From this time I 
 believed and confessed the experience, which 
 increased my faith and confidence. 
 
 Because of much opposition, and a conscious 
 weakness in speaking boldly for Christ, I felt I 
 needed the induement of power from on high. In 
 this condition I retired to my room and there 
 poured out my soul to God for deliverance. While 
 thus engaged in prayer I felt a peculiar sensation 
 come over my body, and the glory of the Lord 
 filled my soul, so that I shouted aloud, u Glory to 
 God," until I was completely prostrated, and asked 
 God to stay his hand. I felt the Spirit permeating 
 my entire being, and that I was now fully crucified 
 with Christ, cleansed from all sin and dead indeed 
 unto sin. 
 
 The thought of sin pained my heart, and to yield 
 to it I felt would be instant death. 
 
 After recovering from my prostration I sat up to 
 read my Bible, which was wonderfully illuminated. 
 While reading a doubt was thrust into my mind as 
 
ASAHEL H. HUSSEY. l6l 
 
 to whether this was truly the baptism of the Holy 
 Ghost or a delusion. This was soon overcome, and 
 the glory of the Lord so filled me that I could not 
 sleep that night. As I walked out in the beauti- 
 ful moonlight I could hear the insects singing 
 " Glory to God," the crickets in the grass saying, 
 " Blessed Jesus," and in the house the old clock on 
 the wall ticked " Praise God." This thrilling emo- 
 tion, which lasted for days, did subside, but the life 
 and light, joy and peace, have continued for these 
 seventeen years. I immediately entered upon gos- 
 pel service with renewed energy, and was blessed 
 in it. I have had many severe trials and tests of 
 my faith, but Christ has given the victory. 
 
 I have found it safe to trust all in the hands of God 
 and obey him in all things, and in so doing I find 
 more happiness, joy, and peace in life than I ever 
 had before. " There are no joys like the joys of 
 God's salvation." In times of trial and perplexity 
 I find it delightful to commit all to God, realizing 
 that he knows best and cares for me still, and will 
 never leave nor forsake me. Praise his name. 
 
 ASAHEL H. HUSSEY. 
 
 Mt. Pleasant, O., Twenty-fifth Day, Third Month, 1887. 
 11 
 
1 62 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 REV. LEWIS B. BATES, D.D. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 XX AH EN seven years of age, in a prayer-meeting 
 I led by my brother, Rev. George W. Bates, 
 who gave the invitation for any who desired to 
 seek the Lord to manifest it by rising, standing up 
 beside my mother and kneeling with her hand upon 
 my head, she said, " Lewis, do you want to be 
 saved ? " " Yes, mother," was the reply. Then 
 said the mother, " Believe on the Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." The boy 
 did believe and was saved, and gave testimony at 
 the close of the meeting that Christ had received 
 him as his disciple. In school the next day, at re- 
 cess, he told the children what God had done for 
 him, and then he had the clear conviction that God 
 called him to be a preacher of his Gospel. For one 
 year all went well with me. But fifty years ago very 
 little was thought of a child's religion, and I was 
 left mostly to myself, not invited even to unite 
 with the Church, but my mother always believed in 
 my piety. 
 
 At thirteen years of age I left home to work for 
 
REV. LEWIS B. BATES, D.D. 163 
 
 my education, and continued in much the same re- 
 ligious condition until I was seventeen years of age, 
 when, on the 27th of February, 1847, after care- 
 ful self-examination, I brought all to God's altar 
 and made an entire consecration to him of all I had 
 or hoped to be, and by faith received the entire 
 cleansing of my heart by the blood of Jesus Christ, 
 " which cleanseth from all unrighteousness/' My 
 reputation, talents, time, heart, will, choice, kindred, 
 and all, was accepted of him in the everlasting cov- 
 enant ; and from that hour to this I have not will- 
 fully disobeyed him. Many mistakes, many errors 
 of judgment, but the offering has never been taken 
 back. God did accept all, and has been living in 
 this heart of mine Sovereign and King. 
 
 God has gloriously revealed himself to me as a 
 complete Saviour. 
 
 During thirty-eight years of my ministry I have 
 always enjoyed and preached a full, free and perfect 
 salvation, urging the people to present deliverance 
 from all sin and entire sanctiflcation to God and 
 his service, and perfect conformity to the will and 
 image of Christ's preaching ; to all that the witness 
 of sanctiflcation is as clear and distinct as our ac- 
 ceptance with God can be. I have found in these 
 thirty-seven years of experience peace, rest, joy and 
 consolation perfect in Christ, without any failures 
 on his part. I find the Holy Spirit an abiding 
 guest, ever witnessing with the blood and word, de- 
 
164 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 claring that "he that is born of God sinneth not." 
 Of this victory secured by the blood of cleansing I 
 could write volumes. It is new every morning, 
 every evening, every midnight ; yes, new every mo- 
 ment. O boundless ocean of perfect love in Jesus 
 Christ my Lord ! 
 
 All glory be to God for the great things he has 
 done for me personally in my family ; brought them 
 all to know him " whom to know is life eternal." 
 
 Now there burns on the altar of my heart the 
 holy fire of love supreme to God, and love pure and 
 consecrated to all men. 
 
 " Great peace have they that love thy law, and 
 nothing shall offend them/' 
 
 " If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, 
 ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done." 
 
 LEWIS B. BATES. 
 East Boston, Mass., March 12, 1888. 
 
OSIE M. FITZGERALD. 165 
 
 XXII. 
 
 OSIE M. FITZGERALD. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 T WAS born in Bernardsville, New Jersey, in 1813. 
 J} When I was about six years old, thinking I 
 would have a nice time, I took a water-melon from 
 my uncle's farm near by and divided it with two 
 cousins. My oldest brother, nearly twelve years of 
 age, heard what I had done. In the evening he 
 took me aside and asked me if I knew I had been 
 stealing. He said that, having taken it without my 
 uncle's consent, it was stealing. What he said made 
 no impression upon me at the time ; but the next 
 April that dear brother died. Some time after his 
 death I became deeply convicted of sin. My brother 
 had told me that no one who stole could enter 
 heaven. So I felt that I was lost. My convictions 
 were so keen they destroyed my appetite, and I 
 stayed away from my dinner. My father missed me 
 and sent a servant for me. I told her I did not want 
 any dinner, but wanted to see my father. I was in 
 the garden weeping bitterly. The dinner was 
 given up by my father. I was taken into the sitting- 
 room, and he took me on his lap. Then I told him 
 
l66 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 all — how I had taken the melon, and that I should 
 be lost. He told me to stop crying and listen to 
 him. He said Jesus had died for my sins, and if I 
 would trust Jesus to save me he would do it. I think 
 I believed because my father said so. As soon as 
 I believed that Jesus pardoned my sins, in the 
 twinkling of an eye the joy of the Lord filled my 
 soul, so that I went skipping from sitting-room to 
 parlor, from parlor to kitchen, like a bird of the air. 
 My parents were delighted, for I had been under 
 that weight of sin for weeks, till they began to fear 
 for my health, not knowing what ailed me. At 
 this time I was seven years old, and was thought 
 too young to join the Church, so I was left out in 
 the cold until I was nearly frozen to death. Some 
 years afterward the Lord graciously visited the 
 Presbyterian Church (to which my parents 
 belonged) and gave me a fresh token of my accept- 
 ance with him. I was then taken into the Church 
 with my older brother and sister. At that time I 
 was fifteen years of age. From the time I was con- 
 verted my conscience was very keen, so that I 
 would not take even a pin from the cushion of 
 another, nor one that I found on their floor ; and 
 if I repeated anything I had heard I would repeat 
 the exact words. I prayed daily, but my Christian 
 life was not a joyous one. I had been taught to 
 say " I hope I am a Christian, " and that it was 
 presumption to say I knew my sins were forgiven. 
 
OSIE M. FITZGERALD. 167 
 
 Many times the question would arise in my mind, 
 " Do I belong to the Lord ? " As years passed on 
 I had a great desire to be more Christlike. I began 
 to note the Lord's dealings with me. I kept a 
 diary, which showed me many mistakes, failures, 
 and broken resolutions. Though I now enjoyed re- 
 ligion, and had the witness of God's Spirit that I 
 was adopted into his family, yet when I " would do 
 good evil was present with me." Little things 
 would make me angry. In the morning, while 
 bowed before God, I would resolve not to get angry 
 that day. But when night came I found myself 
 weighed down by broken resolutions. If I had 
 company and wanted my dinner particularly nice, 
 and it was burned, I was angry. If a servant went 
 to the wrong side of a person at the table to help 
 him, though I said not a word, I would feel angry, 
 thinking my guest would consider me incompetent 
 to teach my servant what was proper. My pride 
 was wounded. Afterward I would weep before the 
 Lord, knowing that he saw my heart though others 
 did not. About that time the Lord sent the 
 Rev. James Caughey to the Central Methodist 
 Episcopal Church for a few weeks, and he preached 
 clearly the doctrine of entire sanctification. I had 
 not thought that I could ever live without daily 
 committing sin. But when he took his text, " Be 
 ye holy for I am holy," and said we are not only 
 invited but commanded to be holy, the words 
 
l68 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 struck deep into my heart. He then quoted Paul 
 and Fletcher, Payson, Wesley and others. I 
 thought, it may be for them but not for me. But 
 the words came, " God is no respecter of persons," 
 and with a determined will I said, " God being my 
 helper, I shall have that blessing." We were in- 
 vited forward to the altar. I went to get a clean 
 heart ; but when asked what I came for I said, " a 
 deeper work of grace." The Lord blessed me won- 
 derfully, and I was told that it was entire sanctifi- 
 cation ; for surely, they said, "if I were willing to die 
 for Christ I must love God with all my heart." I 
 did not believe I had it. I found then, and have 
 found ever since, that it takes more grace to live 
 for Christ than it does to die for him. Then it 
 came to me, " Will you give your children to the 
 Lord ? " It was suggested, " if you do he will take 
 them out of the world." At last I surrendered 
 them to God. Then came a still greater struggle. 
 The Spirit said, " Will you give up your husband, 
 to me? " I said, " Lord, I will die willingly if thou 
 wilt let him live. I am not of much account, but 
 I cannot live and let him die, for my health is so 
 poor I will be unable to take care of my family." 
 It was also suggested that "we might lose all our 
 property, and I would at last have to go to the 
 alms-house." That struggle lasted for two days or 
 more. Then it was whispered to me, " You may be 
 the means of saving some soul in the alms-house." 
 
OSIE M. FITZGERALD. 169 
 
 Then came the passage, "No good thing will I 
 withhold from them that walk uprightly." I 
 yielded all to God. Saturday night came. I went 
 forward for prayers. The Spirit said to me, " If I 
 give you a clean heart, and sanctify you wholly, will 
 you speak before this people and tell them what I 
 have done for you ? M Having been brought up a 
 Presbyterian I was very much opposed to women 
 speaking in the church. I thought no one but a 
 bold Methodist woman would speak in church. 
 Consequently I said, " No ; it is not the place for 
 a female to speak." Again the question was 
 repeated. I then said " I would do it if the Lord 
 required it, but he does not, for there are plenty of 
 men to speak." My agony of soul increased, and 
 as I continued to plead the question continually 
 recurred. My agony of soul was so intense that it 
 seemed to me it must soon be victory or death, and 
 I cried out, " Yes, Lord, though it be before a thou- 
 sand people." Then there was a great calm in my 
 soul. And I said, " What now, Lord ? " The Spirit 
 said, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray be- 
 lieve that ye receive them and ye shall have them." 
 (Mark 11, 24.) I saw clearly I must believe before I 
 could receive. The tempter said, " How can you 
 believe without any evidence ? " I replied, " I have 
 God's word, and I believe the work is done if I never 
 have any more evidence till I meet him at his bar ; 
 for he says, ' Heaven and earth shall pass away, 
 
170 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 but my word shall not pass away/ " " But," said 
 the tempter, " you may find yourself mistaken." I 
 said, " I will take that promise with me to the bar 
 of God, and I will tell Him that I have been trusting 
 Him (on his word) for a clean heart, without any 
 evidence." Then the adversary said, " Perhaps you 
 will find there is no God." I answered, " Then I 
 am safe ; if there is no God there is neither heaven 
 nor hell." Some time after a good brother said to 
 me, " You do believe that God cleanseth you now 
 from all sin." If I had had a thousand bodies and 
 souls I could have thrown them all into that " Yes." 
 The moment I confessed it the Holy Ghost with 
 lightning speed came into my heart and cleansed it 
 from all sin, and took up his abode in my heart 
 and filled me with such unspeakable joy that for 
 three days I scarcely knew whether I was in the 
 body or out of it. Great struggle as I had to get 
 a clean heart, it was a struggle of a week to get 
 it cleansed, but need not have taken three minutes 
 if I had surrendered my will to God ; but it is a life 
 battle with the world, the flesh, and Satan to keep 
 it clean, and nothing but a continual surrender to 
 God can do it. 
 
 God pardoned my sins in the winter of 1820-21. 
 On the 27th of December, 1856, in the evening, in 
 Central Methodist Episcopal Church in Newark, 
 N. J., through the blood of Jesus Christ, God 
 cleansed my heart from all sin, and the Holy Ghost 
 
OSIE M. FITZGERALD. 171 
 
 sanctified me wholly, I think. Mr. Wesley says it 
 is next to a miracle for any one to receive that 
 blessing and never lose it. Then I surely am next 
 to a miracle of grace. For I have never lost it, and 
 I have no recollection of ever feeling the stirrings 
 of anger, jealousy, pride, self-will, or bitterness, 
 since the day God cleansed my heart from all 
 sin and the Holy Ghost came in and filled me. 
 He has been the door-keeper of my heart every 
 hour since ; and from that day to this nothing 
 has been permitted to enter that has not been 
 submitted to the will of God. Temptations have 
 come but have not been permitted to enter. There 
 has not been one hour since that I have not 
 had access to the audience-chamber of the Most 
 High. I think I once came near losing it, not know- 
 ing clearly the voice of the Spirit, in letting my 
 husband decide for me, thinking the word of God 
 required me to be obedient to my husband. In my 
 early experience of full obedience to God the Spirit 
 prompted me to pray in the meeting. Not being 
 accustomed to try the spirits, I questioned wheth- 
 er the evil one was not tempting me to break 
 through the rules of the meeting and pray when 
 the men were asked to pray and no woman was 
 invited. Not knowing fully that it was of God I 
 questioned till the opportunity was past. After- 
 ward it was said to me, " If you had been led to pray 
 in your room alone would you not have done it ? v 
 
172 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 I said, " Yes." " Then what but a man-fearing or 
 a man-pleasing spirit prevented you ?" I said, 
 " Lord, show me clearly thy will ; please or dis- 
 please man, I will do it." The adversary said, 
 " You will do it before all those people." I said, 
 " Lord, show me thy will, and I will do it if I 
 die in the act." It came to me, " Now you will 
 be tested." The next prayer-meeting I felt no lead- 
 ing of the Spirit till near the close of the meeting, 
 when it came to me, " Pray!" I said, "Lord, shall 
 I pray when this man ceases ?" It came to me, 
 "No." I thought "perhaps the Lord is going 
 to teach me obedience and oblige me to ask 
 the privilege to pray after they close the meeting 
 I felt I would do it, but they sang another 
 hymn and called upon a brother to pray, who 
 commenced and could not pray, stopped, and I 
 prayed, or rather the Holy Ghost prayed through 
 my lips. After this there was a watch-night service 
 appointed for Sunday night, and the Spirit showed 
 me I was to go. After I came from church I was 
 taken very sick, so that I could not sit up, and as 
 the time for service drew near I began to feel that 
 I might be mistaken about the Lord wanting me 
 to go ; so I prayed earnestly for him to show me 
 if he willed me to go. I found he did. It was sug- 
 gested, " You are so sick." I said, " Lord, I will go if 
 I die on the way." Not being able to walk straight 
 it was with great difficulty that I got out of the 
 
OSIE M. FITZGERALD. 1 73 
 
 house into the street ; but as I was passing the 
 second house from mine all sickness left me, and in 
 an instant I was as well as I ever was. The Lord 
 had been working in that church ; the altar had been 
 crowded night after night with seekers. That 
 night the preacher could not get the people to 
 move. I think only two went forward, and the 
 spiritual atmosphere was heavy as lead. The 
 preacher started down the aisle, and it was said to 
 him, " There is your help, in that pew." Not know- 
 ing who I was, as I was kneeling and he could not 
 see my face, he said, " My sister, I want you to go 
 forward and talk to those seekers." It was a great 
 cross for me to do it ; but I went. He said, " We 
 will sing one verse, then Sister FitzGerald will talk 
 to us." Not thinking of one word to say, it was so 
 great a cross that I know I could have died easier 
 than to speak. But the thought came, " I must 
 meet all these at the judgment," and though I could 
 not think of one word to say, I said, " Here, Lord, 
 are these lips ; speak through them." I told of an 
 Episcopalian lady who some years before was in 
 that church and became deeply convicted, but her 
 husband opposed her coming again, saying she was 
 as good as those who professed to be converted. 
 A short time after she sickened and died. Just 
 before she died she called for her little daughter, 
 some two or three years old, to be placed upon the 
 bed, her husband sitting beside her bed. She said, 
 
174 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 " You have stood between me and my soul's salva- 
 tion. You said I was good enough. Now I want 
 you to promise me that you will let my dear child 
 go to church as God leads her, that she may be 
 saved. " As I told this an elegantly dressed lady 
 from the middle of the church arose and came to 
 the altar. As she started out the people started 
 from all parts of the church and came forward, and 
 many were converted. Two days after, this lady 
 came to see me ; God had soundly converted her. 
 She said, " I was deeply convicted, and wanted to go 
 forward for prayers ; but my husband was in Wash- 
 ington, and I thought he would be displeased when 
 he came to find that I, an Episcopalian, had gone 
 to a Methodist altar for prayers. But when you 
 told that story I resolved he should not stand 
 between me and God ; that I would have my soul 
 saved." 
 
 When I was first fully saved Christ so satisfied 
 me that the things of this world did not trouble me. 
 If a dinner were uncooked, or if it were burned, it 
 did not move me ; and so in regard to other things, 
 if the family complained, though I saw they had 
 just cause for it, yet I felt I must not complain, 
 fearing I might get angry, or that others might 
 think I was angry, though I was not. But the Lord 
 showed me he had grace enough for me to be 
 decided and firm, and have things done in a proper 
 way, and yet not have one quiver of anger; and he 
 
OSIE M. FITZGERALD. 1 75 
 
 has proven it to be so. The way grows contin- 
 ually brighter. I have sweet communion with the 
 triune God. Sometimes my communion is with 
 the Father ; then with the Son ; other times 
 with the third person of the adorable Trinity. For 
 the past few days my communion has been with 
 the Father and the Son. He reveals himself to me 
 so wonderfully, and has for the past few years, that 
 human language cannot express it. At times it 
 seems as if my heart were liquid. For years, can 
 clearly say, my will has floated in the will of God as 
 the cork floats on the water. To-day Jesus saves 
 
 me fully. 
 
 OSIE M. FITZGERALD. 
 
 Newark. N. J., June 18, 1887. 
 
176 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 REV. GEORGE HUGHES. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 T N the order of a wise providence I was greatly 
 J& favored in having Christian parents. They 
 were members of the Wesleyan Society in Manches- 
 ter, England. My precious mother was one of the 
 holiest of women. The sweet savor of Christian 
 holiness pervaded my early home. In the midst of 
 many domestic cares and severe trials my mother 
 exemplified daily the spirit and power of Christian 
 perfection, and it was her aim especially to bring 
 up her children in the nurture and admonition of 
 the Lord. She would often take them to her room 
 and, " with strong cries and tears," commend them 
 to her Heavenly Father's watch-care. The remem- 
 brance of those hours of devotion is to me " as 
 ointment poured forth." I am inclined to think 
 that in early childhood I was made a subject of 
 God's renewing grace, but, like too many of tender 
 years, it was not distinctly retained. 
 
 In the year 1838, when I was fifteen years of age, 
 I came to this country. My new home was in Phil- 
 adelphia. The separation from my friends and 
 native land was very painful. 
 
REV. GEORGE HUGHES. 1 77 
 
 It was not long, however, ere the prayers of my 
 pious mother were answered. In the following year 
 after my arrival in the United States, in February, 
 1839, under the ministry of Rev. Charles Pitman, 
 in the Eighth Street Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 Philadelphia, I was happily converted. For a time 
 I went on my way rejoicing, but, through the influ- 
 ence of improper associates and the discouragements 
 of my business position, I was turned aside from 
 the right path. Through the mercy of God, I 
 was arrested, and restored to my forfeited peace. 
 
 Subsequently, I removed to the city of New York 
 and became connected with the Allen Street Church. 
 There I became acquainted with Dr. and Mrs. 
 Phoebe Palmer, and a life-long friendship was 
 formed. They manifested a loving interest in the 
 stranger-boy, and sought to lead me into the higher 
 walks of the Christian life. They conducted a 
 meeting in the church on Saturday evening for the 
 promotion of holiness. I attended that meeting 
 and felt its potential influence — in fact, I believe at 
 that time I had some experience of sanctifying 
 grace ; but the evidence was not very clear, and I 
 did not hold to the line. Rev. John Poisal was pas- 
 tor of the church, and manifested a lively interest 
 in my welfare. He gave me license to exhort, and 
 I became connected with the Local Preachers' 
 Association of New York. 
 
 In 1843 I was called to enter the itinerant minis- 
 12 * 
 
178 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 try of the Methodist Episcopal Churcn by Rev. 
 John S. Porter, presiding elder of the Newark Dis- 
 trict in the New Jersey Conference. I was sent to 
 the Madison charge as junior preacher. I entered 
 upon this responsible work with much trembling, 
 but under the solemn conviction that I was called 
 of God, and that this must be my life-work. In 
 1844 I was admitted on trial in the Conference and 
 continued to prosecute my holy calling, God being 
 pleased to give me seals to my ministry. Unfor- 
 tunately for me, in the early years of my itinerant 
 life, my environments were such that a foolish preju- 
 dice against special meetings for the promotion of 
 holiness was engendered in my heart. This was a 
 snare to me, and a great hindrance to my Christian 
 progress and usefulness as a minister. My friends, 
 Dr. and Mrs. Palmer, like guardian angels, were ever 
 upon my track,and, had I yielded to their loving min- 
 istries, would have led me into the " Land of Beu- 
 lah." In one of my charges the now sainted and be- 
 loved Mrs. Mary D. James was one of my flock. 
 But I was particularly averse to being led by "holy 
 women" in this matter. I thought I understood the 
 doctrine of Methodism, having studied our standard 
 writers in my Conference course, and when I was 
 ready to seek the experience I would do so without 
 the persuasions of others. The remembrance of 
 those years of unreasonable opposition is now very 
 painful, and I would fain obliterate the record. But, 
 
REV. GEORGE HUGHES. 179 
 
 alas ! it is ineffaceable. I held to the doctrine of 
 entire sanctification tenaciously, and preached it to 
 my people, thinking it my duty to do so as ex- 
 pressive of my loyalty as a Methodist preacher. 
 Often while thus discoursing to the congregation 
 the Spirit would speak to me powerfully, saying, 
 " Why don't you do this yourself? " But I pleaded 
 for a postponement. 
 
 At length, after about twenty years of this bat- 
 tling with conviction, God, in the order of his 
 providence, brought matters to an issue by permit- 
 ting me to go into the furnace of affliction. While 
 presiding elder of the Burlington District, N. J., I 
 became nervously prostrated and was obliged to 
 resign my charge. By the advice of physicians I 
 returned to my native land to enjoy a year of en- 
 tire quiet. I was thus furnished with an opportu- 
 nity to review my past life. In taking this retro- 
 spect I became painfully conscious of my defects, 
 and especially did my mistakes concerning the sub- 
 ject of Christian holiness loom up before me. At 
 this juncture Dr. and Mrs. Palmer, who were en- 
 gaged in evangelistic services in my native city, 
 Manchester, called to see me one day at my father's 
 house. I was not at home, but when informed that 
 they had called my heart was deeply affected. It 
 brought up memories of the past very vividly. I 
 attended the services and the Holy Spirit, through 
 their instrumentality, wrought deep conviction in 
 
l8o FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 my mind. At the close of these services they went 
 to Nottingham. I said to my companion, " It 
 seems as if Satan has gained advantages over me for 
 twenty years touching personal holiness ; let us pack 
 our trunk and go to Nottingham and see what the 
 Lord will do for us there." Accordingly we went, and 
 obtained quarters in the home of a Wesleyan local 
 preacher who was enjoying entire sanctification. 
 
 On Sabbath morning, May 31, 1863 (ever mem- 
 orable day) we attended service in the Wesleyan 
 chapel, and the junior preacher, Rev. Mr. Henchell, 
 preached a sermon on the text, " We know that all 
 things work together for good to them that love 
 God." This sermon was made a great blessing to 
 my soul. While listening thereto there came to 
 me a voice from heaven, saying, u If the Lord shall 
 fully baptize you with the Holy Ghost will you wit- 
 ness to the people of Nottingham of the great sal- 
 vation?" To this my heart made affirmative re- 
 sponse. A flood of joy came in upon me instantly, 
 and I returned from the house of God to my lodg- 
 ings, praising the Lord along the street. In the 
 afternoon we went to the opening service of Dr. 
 and Mrs. Palmer, in the Shakespeare Street United 
 Free Methodist Chapel. During that hour I was 
 led to make my entire consecration very definite, 
 and the witness of the Holy Ghost to inward pu- 
 rity, through the application of the all-cleansing 
 blood of Jesus, was very clear and joyous. In 
 
REV. GEORGE HUGHES. l8l 
 
 making my entire consecration it was laid upon 
 me that on my return to the United States I 
 should witness of this grace — a vow which I sacredly 
 performed. In the evening of that day I was led to 
 give public testimony to probably fifteen hundred 
 people of my folly in so long resisting my convic- 
 tions on this subject, and of the gladness of my heart 
 in the reception of this great blessing. I continued 
 to enjoy the services there, and had great peace, 
 although not able to participate very actively 
 therein. 
 
 We returned to the United States on the same 
 steamer with our friends, Dr. and Mrs. Palmer, and 
 had sweet fellowship by the way. The voyage was 
 a stormy one, and at times the ship was in great peril 
 but my mind was undisturbed. While the ship was 
 rolling in the mighty waves, as I lay in my berth, 
 I was ready to sing : 
 
 " This awful God is ours, 
 
 Our Father and our Love ; 
 He will send down his heavenly powers, 
 
 To carry us above." 
 
 If spared to see next May a quarter of a century 
 of experience on this line of light and love, will have 
 elapsed. Blessed years they have been ! I cannot 
 say, however, that throughout that entire period I 
 have retained a clear witness of entire sanctification. 
 The evidence has been obscured at times, but I 
 have never been able to rest without it. 
 
1 82 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 The years which have elapsed have been my growth 
 period. My feet have been more and more estab- 
 lished in paths of righteousness. The last two years 
 have been exceedingly precious, full of power and 
 joy in the Holy Ghost. I never preached with such 
 freedom as I do at the present time. I am often 
 filled with rapture in proclaiming a full and free 
 salvation. 
 
 The Bible is indeed a luminous book. Its hallow- 
 ed pages, to my view, glow with supernatural light. 
 I have great delight in prayer — closet, family, and 
 public prayer. I find my heart going out with glad 
 response to pointed scriptural teachings, particu- 
 larly, " Love thinketh no evil," u In honor preferring 
 one another," " Esteeming others better than your- 
 selves," " And seekest thou great things for thyself ? 
 Seek them not." In a word, love has the mastery, 
 the antagonisms being destroyed, and my feet rest 
 firmly on the Rock of Ages. I am proving, as 
 never before, that salvation is a Divine personality — 
 more, far more than a blessing. It is the internal re- 
 vealment of The BLESSER in the infinitude of His 
 attributes, constituting within my soul a never-failing 
 and ever-springing well " springing up unto everlast- 
 ing life." To God the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost, be everlasting praise ! 
 
 GEORGE HUGHES. 
 
 New York, March 12, 1888. 
 
SARAH A. L. PALMER. 1 83 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 SARAH A. L. PALMER. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 T WAS born April 23, 1806, and born again June 
 <i 21, 1819. Being taught by Christian parents 
 that Jesus loved children, and often feeling a con- 
 scious love to Jesus, I seemed to take it for granted 
 that I was a child of God. But in my twelfth year 
 I began to question my adoption. Just after I had 
 passed my thirteenth birthday, on my way to a 
 camp-meeting, I purposed to settle the question. At 
 the first prayer-meeting I began to ask the Lord to 
 make me his child and let me know it. Then came 
 the first keen conviction. I was a condemned sin- 
 ner ; I was frightened, and wept aloud. But soon 
 the joy unspeakable was mine. The glory was too 
 great for the feeble frame. Totally unconscious of 
 earthly surroundings I joined the angelic choir in 
 adoring him who so loved us. 
 
 Months passed joyfully, when I was deeply im- 
 pressed while reading Gen. 17. 1. It seemed to be 
 a command, and yet an impossibility. Soon, how- 
 ever, the light came. The Lord had prefaced the 
 command by saying, " I am the Almighty." He 
 
1 84 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 had also said, " I will put my Spirit within you and 
 will cause you to keep my statutes and do them/' 
 
 Temptations were many, and my views were not 
 clear, but I felt that I must have a clean heart. We 
 were going to a camp-meeting. I thought, " Surely 
 I will get the blessing there." 
 
 On the first day of the meeting I went forward as 
 a seeker of sanctification, and continued to do so 
 through the whole week. Jacob-like, the whole of 
 the last night I wrestled. Dear ones said again 
 and again, " Believe, believe the blood cleanseth." 
 My reply was, " I do believe, but I want to feel." 
 The day dawned; my dear mother said, " Daughter, 
 you must leave this place," as she raised mejrom 
 my knees. 
 
 Finding I could struggle no longer I said, "I will 
 believe." At that moment, as I opened my eyes 
 and caught the first crimson ray of the rising sun, 
 filled with rapture, I exclaimed, " The Sun of 
 Righteousness has risen with healing in his wings." 
 
 For months my comfort and confidence continued. 
 Temptations came. My numerous young associates 
 could not understand me. They said I was " super- 
 cilious " or " sanctimonious." I did not then, nor 
 do I now, in my eighty-second year, think I made 
 the way too narrow. 
 
 The tempter, no doubt, took advantage of me, and 
 often brought me under painful fear lest I had 
 grieved the good Spirit. Sometimes I prayed my 
 
SARAH A. L. PALMER. 1 85 
 
 heavenly Father to take me from this world of 
 temptations. I even told the Lord I could see no 
 reason why I could not go and live where there was 
 no danger of falling. 
 
 But the crisis came. The family had returned 
 from a funeral. As I entered the hall-door, and 
 placed my hand on the rail of the steps, I breathed 
 a sigh and said, " O, if they had only laid me away 
 instead of that one ! ,! Instantly it seemed as if a 
 heavy hand was laid upon my shoulder accompanied 
 by a severe reproof. The voice said, " How un- 
 grateful ! God has put you here for a purpose, and 
 you are struggling to get away." Never did I so 
 cower under an earthly parent's reproof. It was 
 God my Father, and I had offended him by my im- 
 patience. Bursting into tears I cried, " Lord, for- 
 give me, and I will never ask this again." 
 
 Another temptation was a fear that I might live 
 to be old and useless. An ardently-loved relative 
 seemed to be set aside as old and useless. Pass- 
 ing her house, on the opposite side of the street, 
 one day, I looked up to her window to catch 
 the affectionate recognition. But the loved one 
 did not appear. I drew a sigh, and was on the 
 point of saying, " Please, dear Lord, don't let me 
 live to be old and useless." Then the thought 
 came, " They shall still bring forth fruit in old age." 
 Rejoicingly I said, " That is written in the Bible, 
 and if I live to be sixty years old I will claim that 
 
1 86 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 promise." I was near fifteen when this precious 
 promise was given, and I have held it fast, calling 
 it mine, ever since. 
 
 Tests came. The yielding of my will became so 
 painful that my consecration was questioned, per- 
 plexity followed, and the consciousness of purity 
 was dimmed, then lost. Not until 1823 was the 
 veil lifted. 
 
 One evening I resolved not to rise from my knees 
 without the clear witness of holiness. Several times 
 the promise was presented, "The blood cleanseth." 
 Trembling, I would say, "I do believe/' but, impa- 
 tient for further manifestations, would again resume 
 pleading. About one o'clock in the morning I 
 opened the precious Bible on " Ye have need of 
 patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, 
 ye might receive the promises. For yet a little 
 while and he that shall come will come, and will not 
 tarry. Now the just shall live by faith." I felt the 
 reproof and also the encouragement, and calmly 
 said, "Lord, I will believe ; I am wholly thine ; help 
 me to abide in thee." I. then retired, resolving to 
 live by faith. At the dawn of day I awoke, desir- 
 ing the Lord to confirm my faith by directing my 
 eye to some special passage in the Bible. I opened 
 to " Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man 
 draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him!' 
 
 I was thrilled. I felt to " draw back " would be 
 death, and cried, " Lord, keep me ! " Throughout 
 
SARAH A. L. PALMER. 1 87 
 
 the day a most profound solemnity rested on my 
 mind. Holiness seemed written on every object. 
 On Monday the enemy said, " It is possible you 
 may yet be deceived ; you have not received this 
 blessing as you expected/* But my soul sweetly 
 rested in the precious promises. On Tuesday morn- 
 ing a very powerful temptation was presented. I 
 hastened to the closet, and, pleading my youth and 
 inexperience, felt encouraged to ask another and a 
 still more powerful assurance of purity. The an- 
 swer was instantly given by a most powerful appli- 
 cation of " Now are ye clean through the word 
 which I have spoken unto you," 
 
 It was enough. I was now permitted, in a man- 
 ner unknown before, to walk and talk with God. 
 
 I went to my class almost impatient to declare 
 the loving-kindness of God. At the commencement 
 our leader prayed, " Lord, sanctify us wholly ; let it 
 not be a think so, a hope so, or a BELIEVE so." It 
 went as an arrow to my heart. ' ■ You have evidence 
 only as connected with believing." It was a fatal 
 dart from the adversary. My only hope seemed 
 wrested from me. Unconscious of all about me I 
 seemed intent on having the question decided, "Is 
 it a reality or not ? " When rising to leave the 
 class-room the decision came to give up my intense 
 interest on the subject of holiness. Others seemed 
 to enjoy the favor of God without the witness, and 
 I thought I would try to do so too. I little thought 
 
1 88 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 of its impossibility. I was instantly hurled into 
 darkness and despair, with nothing before me but 
 the awful doom of the fearful and unbelieving. 
 
 My senses were almost astounded with, " If any 
 man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in 
 him." For two weeks my sense of ingratitude was 
 so great that I did not dare to hope for pardon. 
 Then a sweet voice whispered, " This man receiv- 
 eth sinners." I came as a sinner and was again 
 accepted. But an impression that I had forfeited 
 the close fellowship of former days caused deep hu- 
 miliation. It seemed just that I should not be 
 trusted. I had " drawn back," and as a naughty 
 child I must be kept at a little distance for a time, but 
 not disinherited. So subtle was this temptation that 
 for months it was not suspected as Satanic. As 
 soon as I detected its true character I got the 
 victory. 
 
 With new light came new responsibilities. The 
 first duty against which my will rebelled was leading 
 a religious meeting, and, next, more faithfulness in 
 personal warnings. The way in which I supposed 
 the Lord required me to walk I could not expect the 
 dearest loved one to understand. Alone with God 
 this matter must be settled. Death seemed prefer- 
 able to the divine terms. But at last I settled it, 
 and again I triumphed. 
 
 Early in May, 1835, an impression was felt so 
 much like unhallowed emotion that it caused 
 
SARAH A. L. PALMER. 1 89 
 
 extreme pain. I then resolved to have a more pos- 
 itive assurance of inward purity. I immediately 
 entered into covenant with God to withdraw my 
 mind from every object that might divert me from 
 this point, and to leave no means unused which he 
 might appoint. Every motive, purpose and prac- 
 tice was required to undergo a renewed investigation. 
 I cried, " O fill me with the Holy Ghost !" All was 
 calm. I had none of the expected emotions. I arose 
 from my knees fully determined to reckon myself 
 dead to sin if I had not a joyous emotion in forty 
 years, when the enemy immediately suggested, u You 
 have no more evidence now than before ; you might 
 have believed long since ; who ever heard of believing 
 and continuing to believe without evidence ?" Im- 
 mediately the Spirit replied, " Blessed are they that 
 have not seen yet believe. ,, " Presumption " was the 
 constant cry of the enemy. But the "sword of the 
 Spirit " prevailed, though the contest was very 
 severe. To " draw back" I knew was death, and I 
 resolved to endure the conflict while mortal life 
 should last, even if no other evidence was given. 
 Just after forming this resolution the promise came 
 with more power than ever, " Blessed is she that 
 believeth, for there shall be a performance of those 
 things which w r ere told her from the Lord." For 
 seven days Satan tauntingly suggested, u You be- 
 lieve because you will believe." Just at that time I 
 met Rev. Timothy Merritt, who said, " Sister, you 
 
I90 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 know something of holiness by experience ; do you 
 not?" I was startled, and about to reply, " I am 
 hardly prepared to answer that question/' but after 
 a moment's hesitation I said, " I have dared to 
 reckon myself dead indeed unto sin, but it is con- 
 stantly suggested that it may be presumption, with 
 so little evidence." Said Brother Merritt, " Never 
 fear presumption in believing God; presumption lies 
 in daring to doubt." All fear now vanished. The 
 baptism of the Holy Ghost came in its glorious full- 
 ness; it seemed as a baptism of love almost to the 
 overwhelming of the physical frame, accompanied 
 with an inexpressible consciousness of purity, a 
 consciousness only understood by those who have 
 received it. 
 
 Since that blessed day, May 21, 1835, I think 
 there has not been one hour in which my soul has 
 not been sweetly resting in the precious atonement. 
 Though the witness of the Spirit has not been with- 
 drawn for an hour, yet there have been instances 
 when sudden temptation has assumed so much the 
 appearance of sinful emotion as to cause keen pain ; 
 but I have been invariably enabled almost instantly 
 to appropriate that blood which cleanseth from all 
 sin. 
 
 These acts of faith have generally been im- 
 mediately succeeded by a most joyous assurance. 
 Since I have been enabled to abide in Christ I be- 
 lieve the language of my heart has been : 
 
SARAH A. L. PALMER. 191 
 
 " No cross, no suffering, I decline, 
 Only let my whole heart be thine." 
 
 The responsibility of being a steward — an agent 
 for God — seems very great. I fear I often lose op- 
 portunities of acting for want of wisdom. I am, 
 therefore, constrained to cry continually, " Teach 
 me thy way ; lead me in a plain path." How pre- 
 cious do I find the promise, " I will instruct thee, 
 and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go ; I 
 will guide thee by mine eye." The word of God is 
 increasingly precious. It is principally through this 
 medium I am permitted to hold converse with 
 Deity. And while his infinite love and faithfulness 
 are unfolded to my enraptured vision I hear him 
 say, more and still more audibly, " Ye are my wit- 
 nesses of these things." 
 
 After more than seventy-six years of conscious 
 
 adoption, and fifty-two of dwelling in the peaceful 
 
 land of perfect love, my heart is singing, " Blessed 
 
 be the Lord, that hath given rest to his people 
 
 Israel, according to all that he promised ; there hath 
 
 not failed one word of all his good promise w T hich he 
 
 promised." — 1 Kings 8. 56. 
 
 SARAH A. L. PALMER. 
 
 316 East Fifteenth Street, New / 
 York City, September 19, 1887. \ 
 
I92 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 REV. HENRY P. HALL. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 T WAS born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 
 <£> September 20, 18 14. Early in life I realized 
 the need of salvation, and for over four years was 
 burdened with a sense of sin. Near the age of 
 twenty, while listening to a sermon, I said mentally, 
 " I will take Jesus to be my Saviour." Immediately 
 my burden was gone, and ere the evening passed 
 God's love was shed abroad in my heart. In a 
 short time I was immersed, and became a member 
 of the Calvinistic Baptist Church in my native 
 town. 
 
 During the summer of 1839, * n Boston, I ob- 
 tained Mahan's Christian Perfection, the study of 
 which convinced me of my duty and privilege to be 
 entirely sanctified to God. I was then an active, 
 obedient Christian up to the light I had. 
 
 With this increased light I at once sought to 
 bring my whole being into oneness with God's 
 will. Being fixed in my purpose I was soon 
 enabled to regard myself as wholly the Lord's. 
 
 Not long after, while in prayer, this thought 
 
REY. HENRY P. HALL. 1 93 
 
 pressed itself upon my consciousness, " The triune 
 God is here." I was at once filled with his peace, 
 and arose satisfied. On returning to my business, 
 and thenceforward, nothing disturbed my inward 
 calm, though I had been troubled by a hasty tem- 
 per. I was not aware that this was my entrance 
 into the life of holiness until at a meeting, some 
 evenings after, the Holy Spirit reminded me of the 
 word recently given, " The triune God is here," as 
 the time when he came into my life to abide, with 
 all things pertaining to life and to godliness. I was 
 filled with the Holy Ghost. It became my meat 
 and drink to do his will as soon as known. This 
 was in the winter of 1839 anc ^ 1840, from which 
 time higher and holier motives actuated me. It was 
 not long before the Lord called me to the ministry. 
 The Baptist Church not encouraging my views of 
 sanctification, I united with the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church. 
 
 During the second year of my ministry my atten- 
 tion was called to this word in Jeremiah, 15, 19: 
 " If thou take forth the precious from the vile thou 
 shalt be as my mouth." I had thought this fully 
 done at the time God came into my life to abide. 
 But the Holy Spirit now so impressed me with the 
 importance of this word that I became still more 
 sensitive Godward, and began to detect forms of 
 selfish mixture that had not before arrested my 
 
 attention. Finding myself unable to discriminate 
 13 
 
194 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 between the precious and the vile I yielded myself 
 to God to do this for me. Soon a form of 
 selfishness was discovered which so surprised and 
 discouraged me that in utter desperation I imme- 
 diately said, " I may as well give up my profession 
 of holiness." As this thought passed through my 
 mind I seemed to fall from that clear light and 
 peace that for years had been my abiding state. 
 Perceiving this I quickly said, " Why, Lord, all this 
 and more if it be thy will," and instantly I was 
 reinstated in God, having learned to distinguish 
 the evil and how to be rid of it. 
 
 This proved to be the lesson of my life, and 
 never had to be repeated. 
 
 If a temptation was likely to cause conflict I would 
 no longer say (as I had been taught) that it was 
 from without, but at once yielded myself to God to 
 bring within more fully the life of Christ, for which 
 the holy soul is predestinated. I became sensitive 
 to the Holy Spirit's work through my powers, 
 realizing that the wholly sanctified soul is as Jesus 
 was when he entered upon his earthly mission. " I 
 came not to do my own will, but the will of Him 
 who sent me." 
 
 My preference yielded to him on the instant of 
 any evidence of inharmony with his way ; the 
 Lord alone was exalted, and I moved on with cer- 
 tainty in his will. 
 
 It is now nearly forty-seven years since I en- 
 
REV. HENRY P. HALL. 195 
 
 tered the highway of holiness, when death to sin 
 passed upon my whole being, and it has been easy 
 to yield up the self-life (which if indulged would 
 become sin), bringing every thought into captivity 
 to the obedience of Christ. 
 
 My abiding home has been in the thirteenth 
 chapter of 1 Corinthians. Love to fullness has 
 abounded always toward God and man. Living 
 by the " faith of the Son of God " it has always 
 been adequate to the needs of this great salvation. 
 
 I have two little words ever in use, yea and nay. 
 Toward God in all things my yea is yea, toward 
 any thing opposite to him my nay is nay. Thus is 
 the Christ-life constantly revealed. 
 
 A number of years since I met with a dear serv- 
 ant of God, and asked him about his experience in 
 holiness. He said with feeling that he was not 
 now in that grace. I then related my experience 
 as above, and said, " You have not withdrawn your 
 consecration, have you ? " He replied, " I have not." 
 His soul seemed stirred. I then asked, " Do you 
 want God to regard you now as wholly consecrated 
 to him ? " " I do," was his reply. I further asked, 
 "Will you regard yourself as thus consecrated to 
 God?" "There comes the tug of war," he said, 
 but soon answered, " I will." I was led to state 
 " The Holy Spirit will now witness to your accept- 
 ance," and soon inquired, " Does he ?" " Yes," was 
 his answer. I then said, " Brother, I have not 
 
I96 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 spoken of a blessing that you are to guard, but a life 
 into which you have entered." The next week he 
 said that it had been the happiest of his life. At 
 the preachers* class-meeting the next month he tes- 
 tified that his experience the past month had been 
 without parallel in his religious history. He is a 
 prominent minister, and is now one of God's lights. 
 
 HENRY P. HALL, 
 North Adams, Mass., July 11, 1887. 
 
REV. WILLIAM JONES, D.D. 197 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 REV. WILLIAM JONES, D.D. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 T WAS converted when only twelve years of age, 
 <£) and, after one year on probation, by no fault of 
 my own I found myself outside of the Church. My 
 sensitive soul was wounded and I gave up my hope 
 in Christ, and after years of moral darkness, the 
 contemplation of which is yet painful, at the age of 
 nineteen years I was graciously reclaimed. But I 
 spent only a brief period in conscious fellowship with 
 God. 
 
 Realizing fully that if I became a Christian indeed 
 I should have to preach the Gospel, and conscious 
 of my inability to meet the demands of the sacred 
 office, I was disobedient to the heavenly calling. 
 
 I put away the conviction of duty from my mind, 
 and sought by severe application to study to dis- 
 sipate all sense of religious obligation. I passed 
 through an academic course of study, took up the 
 science of medicine, and in the excitement of pro- 
 fessional life sought a respite from the convictions 
 of duty. But there came a time when the Spirit of 
 God came with great power to my heart, the whole 
 tide of my life was turned, my entire being was ar- 
 
I98 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 rested and held in suspense by the presence of God, 
 my past failures and future possibilities possessed 
 me by day and by night. At this time I realized in 
 some degree the danger of further disobedience ; it 
 appeared to me that I must submit to God or ut- 
 terly perish ; and after a severe struggle that lasted 
 many days I yielded, and at a late hour in the night 
 of August 11, 1857, alone in my office, I bowed in 
 prayer to God, gave myself to him, and accepted 
 Jesus as my personal Saviour. 
 
 There came into my soul a sense of peace, a calm, 
 quiet assurance of the divine favor; but it was not 
 like my former experience; there was no ebullition 
 of joy. There was a cold, sullen sense of submission 
 from necessity, a spirit of subjugation, and the 
 Father seemed far off, as if I were received on pro- 
 bation, and it was not until the following November 
 that I received by the Spirit the knowledge of com- 
 plete reconciliation through Jesus Christ. Floods 
 of light and joy came into my soul. I was pos- 
 sessed of a new manhood ; " old things " had passed 
 entirely away. I united with the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church, and the path of ministerial duty was 
 at once made plain ; it flashed with celestial bright- 
 ness and glowed with a radiance almost inconceiv- 
 able, and as soon as my probation expired I began 
 to preach, but almost immediately renewed the con- 
 troversy in my own mind, and for five years kept 
 up my quarrel with God. 
 
REV. WILLIAM JONES, D.D. 1 99 
 
 " Clouds and darkness were round about me," 
 weak and undecided; I was vascillating and " un- 
 stable as water.'' But there came a crisis, and I 
 united with the Conference, and after two success- 
 ful pastorates of two years each, in which many 
 were converted, in the fifth year of my ministry I 
 became greatly interested in the subject of holiness. 
 I sought earnestly for a clean heart. The fiery 
 baptism came upon me and I was " made every 
 whit whole." 
 
 For a little more than one year I enjoyed this 
 precious experience, quietly and alone, but without 
 interruption. No one preached on the subject that 
 I knew of; no one testified to it in my hearing, and 
 I cautiously kept still and remained quiescent until 
 the brightness of it passed away, and I found my- 
 self without the witness of purity and not always 
 clear in my experience of sonship. 
 
 About this time the first National Camp-meeting 
 at Urbana, Ohio, occurred, and the whole country 
 was aroused on the subject of holiness. But both 
 the doctrine and experience were misrepresented by 
 its friends and caricatured by its foes. 
 
 The old heresy of the imputed holiness and the 
 impeccability ~of the sanctified were vigorously 
 advocated by a large class of adherents. 
 
 These and other forms of error were prevalent in 
 my congregation, and I began a careful examination 
 of the doctrinal and philosophical aspects of the 
 
200 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 subject. That I might have opportunity to hear 
 their experiences and know their teachings I at- 
 tended the special holiness meetings. I was also 
 present at the second National Camp-meeting # at 
 Urbana, and listened carefully to the sermons and 
 teachings of the members of that association. I 
 heard the thrilling testimonies of the newly sancti- 
 fied and the enrapturing experiences of those who 
 had been years in the way, and found the teachings 
 of the association and the experiences of the people 
 to be in accord with my own former experience and 
 the standards of the Church. I there committed 
 myself publicly to the cause of holiness, and de- 
 clared my faith in the all-cleansing blood. 
 
 After my return home I began to study the dif- 
 ferent phases of the experience as manifested in the 
 various temperaments and idiosyncrasies of those 
 who enjoyed the blessing. I resolved not only to 
 be correct theologically, but I was determined to be 
 experimentally and practically so. I gave myself 
 wholly to God ; I utterly abandoned every thing 
 that was doubtful ; I put entirely away the very 
 appearance of evil, and resolved to know and to 
 please God. 
 
 I knew that I could not reason myself into a clean 
 heart ; but I also knew that my heavenly Father re- 
 quired me " To sanctify the Lord God in my heart, 
 and be ready to give an answer to every man that 
 asked, a reason for the hope that is in me, in meek- 
 
REV. WILLIAM JONES, D.D. 201 
 
 ness and in fear." I soon found that by a careful 
 adjustment of myself to Christ, " the vine/' and a 
 continuous exercise of my will to keep this relation 
 unembarrassed, I grew in grace daily. My strength 
 was enlarged, the witness of the Spirit to my 
 cleansing became very distinct, and my soul was 
 exceedingly sensitive to the approach of evil in any 
 form. 
 
 About ten months of this continuous life of obe- 
 dience brought me out into a large place. And in 
 April, 1874, while assisting Rev. I. N. Smith, of the 
 Central Ohio Conference, in a holiness meeting, I 
 received a special manifestation of the Spirit that 
 far exceeded all my former experiences. My whole 
 being was permeated with the divine presence. My 
 soul was sublimated, and Christ in his divine per- 
 sonality was revealed in wondrous power by the 
 Holy Ghost. He appeared visibly before my con- 
 sciousness, and for months he was " The man from 
 glory standing by my right side." 
 
 Thirteen years have passed away since then, years 
 of intense labor and glorious victory ; years of severe 
 trial and gracious deliverance. I have frequently 
 encountered the same spirit that consigned John 
 Huss to the flames; have gone over on my knees 
 where " There was a sharp rock on that side and 
 a sharp rock on this side ; " but have been enabled 
 to say with the apostle, " Now thanks be unto God 
 who always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and 
 
202 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us 
 in every place." 
 
 There have been periods of fluctuation ; there 
 have been two periods of short duration of hesitancy, 
 in which I swerved, in which I lost ground to some 
 extent. I did not incur guilt, did not contract any 
 moral pollution, but was conscious that I had in 
 some degree lost my aggressive power. 
 
 The causes that led to these weaknesses may be all 
 embraced in the term carelessness. My will lost 
 something of its tenacity of purpose ; my faith re- 
 linquished its positive grasp on Jesus, and sellhood, 
 in one form or another, began to assume dominion. 
 But these periods were of short duration. For 
 nearly fifteen years I have been a loyal citizen of 
 the " Land of Beulah." During these years my 
 soul has grown strong in fellowship with Jesus. I 
 am still in the land, far out toward the interior. I 
 ascend the mountain heights of this wonderful land. 
 I wander through its valleys ; I breathe its perfumed 
 and exhilarating atmosphere ; I feed upon its grains 
 and fruits ; I inhale the fragrance that floats down 
 from its " Mountains of Myrrh." And some day 
 from one of its purple-clouded hills I shall step 
 through the misty veil into the upper temple. 
 
 WILLIAM JONES. 
 Kansas City, Mo., Sept. 6, 1887. 
 
MARY SPARKES WHEELER. 203 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 MARY SPARKES WHEELER. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 T WAS born in England, June 21, 1835. At the 
 «i age of six years I came with my family to 
 America. My parents were devoted Christians, 
 and spared no pains to train me up in the nurture 
 and admonition of the Lord. 
 
 Since my earliest recollection I have never passed 
 a day without prayer, but it was not always the 
 prayer of faith that brought salvation, for I often 
 felt the burden of sin and condemnation on my 
 heart. 
 
 When eight years of age I was once playing 
 " class-meeting " during recess at school. I was 
 leader. All passed off joyfully until a little girl 
 younger than myself arose to speak. She seemed 
 to take the matter all in earnest, and said with 
 trembling voice, as the tears rolled down her 
 cheeks, " I am not as good as I ought to be. I 
 sometimes do wrong and disobey my mamma. 
 Pray for me, that I may be forgiven/' Suddenly 
 my own heart began to ache. I thought, " If that 
 
204 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 little innocent girl needs pardon how much more 
 do I :! " The meeting closed and I started for 
 home. When I supposed myself to be entirely 
 out of sight and hearing I wept aloud. A gentle- 
 man, until then unobserved by me, passed, and 
 said in pitying tones, " What's the matter, little 
 girl?" I made no reply. I did not stop until I 
 reached my own little room, and, falling upon my 
 knees, with a broken and a contrite heart I prayed 
 earnestly for pardon. God heard my prayer. 
 
 " He spake at once my sins forgiven 
 And gave me glory, peace, and heaven." 
 
 That night, young as I was, I could scarcely sleep 
 for joy. I believe I was then converted, and had I 
 told my parents and availed myself of the counsel 
 and aid they would so gladly have given I might have 
 walked in the light from that time until the pres- 
 ent. But I did not understand that I was old 
 enough to be a Christian ; did not hold fast where- 
 unto I had attained, and soon relapsed into my 
 former state. As years passed I drank into the 
 spirit of the world, and it was not until I was 
 fourteen years of age that I made up my mind, 
 after a great struggle, to give my heart to Christ 
 and become a Christian. In the year 1848 I was 
 powerfully convicted of sin. I tried to quench 
 the Spirit. I was away from home, attending' 
 school, but my heart was so overwhelmed with 
 
MARY SPARKES WHEELER. 205 
 
 a sense of my sins and my need of a Saviour that I 
 could neither eat nor sleep. One day I tried in 
 vain to commit my lessons to memory, and asked 
 the teacher to excuse me. I went to my seat and 
 with .my head in my hands, entirely oblivious to 
 all that was passing around me, I promised God if 
 he would spare me until a certain quarterly meet- 
 ing, which was to be held some miles away, in 
 about six months from that time, I would attend it 
 and there seek Christ. My heart grew calm and I 
 pursued my studies without anxiety until the Fri- 
 day preceding the meeting. Then came a great 
 conflict with the adversary. I thought, " To-mor- 
 row I am to seek God/' The tempter said, " You 
 are too young to begin now! All the other stu- 
 dents, with few exceptions, are attending dancing- 
 school, getting ready to enjoy life. You are cutting 
 yourself off from all that is desirable in the future." 
 
 " But I promised God, and I must!" 
 
 " You cannot, because you have no feeling now ! 
 You must wait until you feel as deeply as before. " 
 
 " I promised I would wait no longer, and I must 
 seek now!'' 
 
 Thus the controversy continued until my head 
 began to ache. Wishing in some way to calm my 
 troubled mind I took a magazine from the shelf, 
 intending for a time to change the subject by read- 
 ing some entertaining story. I opened it, and the 
 first words my eye rested upon were these : 
 
206 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 " If now you're convinced. O yield to conviction ! 
 
 Resolve to be God's in the strength of his grace, 
 E'en now he beholds you with tender affection 
 
 And you as his child he longs to embrace." 
 
 Affrighted I threw the book from me. A trem- 
 bling seized me, I fell upon my knees and said, "O, 
 Lord, it is enough ! I will keep my promise. I will 
 attend the meeting and acknowledge myself a 
 seeker." I did so. When at the close of the Sat- 
 urday evening meeting the presiding elder asked 
 those who desired to become Christians to arise I 
 arose alone in the great congregation. I was so 
 young that my rising attracted no attention and 
 called forth no remark or prayer, but when I 
 reached my place of entertainment, in company 
 with my own pastor's wife, she proposed prayer for 
 me, and herself offered a fervent petition for the 
 " dear child who had resolved to * remember now 
 her Creator in the days of her youth.' " 
 
 I did not experience any change in my mind 
 during the meetings that followed, and returned on 
 Monday morning disheartened, disappointed. Now 
 the enemy renewed his attack, and said, " You put 
 it off too long, and God has turned away from you, 
 for is it not written, ' Because I have called and ye 
 have refused, I have stretched out my hand and 
 no man regarded, I also will laugh at your calam- 
 ity and mock when your fear cometh ; then shall 
 they seek me early but shall not find me ? ' " Nearly 
 
MARY SPARKES WHEELER. 2CJ 
 
 a week passed away, bringing no relief to my 
 
 heart, but I determined that I would never cease 
 
 seeking until I found Christ. 
 
 Desiring uninterrupted communion with God I 
 
 entered a little grove near by, and, kneeling by a 
 
 moss-covered log, I prayed earnestly for pardon. 
 
 I tried to repeat God's promises to penitents, and 
 
 while thus engaged hope sprang up in my heart, 
 
 and I began to believe that mercy could reach even 
 
 me, and amid my tears I said, 
 
 " Here, Lord, I give myself away ! 
 Tis all that I can do." 
 
 The burden of condemnation rolled away, and I 
 was freely pardoned. When I reached home the 
 sun was gilding the west with radiance and glory; 
 so the Sun of my soul seemed to be flooding my 
 heart with light and peace. It was not a raptur- 
 ous joy, but peace like a river, continually growing 
 wider and deeper. My experience was clear and 
 definite. I knew that I had passed from death 
 unto life, and the joy this blessed assurance gives 
 dwelt in my soul continually. I continued to walk 
 in the light. I had an ardent desire to live a 
 deeply spiritual life. To be merely an " accepta- 
 ble member of the Church " was not enough. I 
 resolved that I would take for my motto this verse, 
 
 " Be as holy and as happy 
 
 And as useful here below, 
 As it is your Father's pleasure — 
 
 Jesus, only Jesus know." 
 
208 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 I did grow in grace, but the progress I made 
 seemed very slow and unsatisfactory. I was con- 
 stantly struggling against inbred sin. The carnal 
 mind would assert itself, and with tears and self- 
 abasement I was often led to cry, " I am carnal, 
 sold under sin." " For I know that in me, that is, 
 in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing, for to will is 
 present with me, but how to perform that w T hich is 
 good I find not." " For the good that I w r ould, I 
 do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do." 
 " Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that 
 do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." I resolved in 
 the strength of grace that I would be made " free 
 from the law of sin and death." I said, " O Jesus ! 
 if thou canst do the work, let it be done quickly, 
 instantaneously! " And I began to seek earnestly 
 for entire sanctification. 
 
 Time would fail me in telling of the conflicts with 
 the powers of darkness, the struggles of my soul in 
 trying, in some way, to free itself from the body of 
 this death, before sin and self were abandoned and 
 the heart was unconditionally surrendered to Christ. 
 I sought earnestly for months. My anxiety was so 
 great that at times I was almost overwhelmed. 
 My conviction was much deeper than that preced- 
 ing conversion. I wept, fasted, prayed, conse- 
 crated and humbled myself before the Lord over 
 and over again. I would have given life itself to 
 have secured the blessing. Often amid tears I sang, 
 
MARY SPARKES WHEELER. 20g 
 
 " I thirst, thou wounded Lamb of God, 
 
 . To wash me in thy cleansing blood. 
 
 To dwell within thy wounds, then pain 
 
 Is sweet, or life, or death is gain." 
 
 Blessed be God, the fountain was open ! Christ was 
 more willing to bestow than I was to receive, but I 
 did not understand the way of faith. I was young, 
 less than sixteen years of age, had never heard a 
 sermon on the subject, had read but little ; did not 
 know where to procure the helps I needed. I 
 reversed God's order. I said I must feel that the 
 work is done before I believe it. To be sanctified 
 wholly is a great blessing, and my joy must be cor- 
 respondingly great, and until I have a joy unspeak- 
 able and full of glory I will not believe. Thus I 
 lingered, and could not enter in because of unbe- 
 lief. At times I was tempted to regret that I had 
 ever heard of the doctrine, for before this I was 
 happy in the enjoyment of justifying grace. Now 
 I had come up to the Red Sea of difficulty. I had 
 received the command, " Go forward ! M To retreat 
 must be spiritual death. How to go forward I did 
 not know. But the God who divided the Red Sea 
 opened the way for me also. One day I went to a 
 prayer-meeting, hoping to hear something on the 
 subject that would bring relief to my mind, but was 
 disappointed. As I was returning home, bearing on 
 my heart a burden that seemed unendurable, I prayed 
 earnestly to God for help. While passing a house, 
 
 a lady with whom I was only slightly acquainted, and 
 14 
 
2IO FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 who knew nothing of the state of my mind, called to 
 me, saying, " I have a little book here which perhaps 
 you may like to read." "What is it?" I eagerly in- 
 quired. " I do not know," she replied ; " I have not 
 read it ; but I know it is good because my friend, 
 Mrs. A., who lives in New York, sent it to me ; and 
 just as you came in sight the thought occurred to 
 me that you had so much more leisure than I it 
 would be well for you to read it first." I opened 
 the book. It was entitled A Present to My Christian 
 Friend, by Mrs. Phoebe Palmer. In it the author beau- 
 tifully describes the way of faith. I went to my room, 
 and, falling upon my knees before God, I read every 
 word before rising. O what a feast to my hungry 
 soul ! Every question that had perplexed me was 
 satisfactorily answered, every difficulty removed. 
 Presenting myself to Christ was such a reasonable 
 sacrifice, and after doing this it was so easy to 
 reckon myself dead indeed unto sin and alive unto 
 God. If an angel had come down from heaven and 
 handed me the book I could not have believed 
 more fully that God sent it to me. Now the mys- 
 tery vanished and the simplicity of faith amazed me, 
 and in the calmness of that hour I took Jesus as my 
 complete Saviour from all sin. There was no rap- 
 turous joy, but the burden was gone. The " man 
 of sin " was cast out, and Christ had entire posses- 
 sion, while a peace which passeth all understanding 
 seemed to permeate my entire being. 
 
MARY SPARKES WHEELER. 211 
 
 That night I dreamed that in company with a 
 friend, who had a few weeks before entered into 
 this perfect peace, I was walking on a narrow strip 
 of land " 'twixt two unbounded seas," when sud- 
 denly a cyclone or storm of wind arose. I looked at 
 my friend. It did not disturb her — did not even 
 move the folds of her dress — while I was powerless 
 before it. It lifted me from the earth and was bear- 
 ing me out to the ocean. I caught hold of the 
 branches of a tree that overhung the water, but 
 they began to bend and break. I thought, u I shall 
 surely be drowned in the depths of the sea.'/ In 
 my anguish I cried, " Lord, increase my faith ! 
 Lord, increase my faith ! M Immediately the branches 
 broke, but instead of sinking I began to rise, and 
 with nothing but the ocean beneath me and the 
 sky above me I floated outward and upward nearer 
 and nearer to God, while my soul was filled with 
 ineffable glory. In a few moments I was awak- 
 ened by my now sainted mother, who said : "What 
 is the matter? Do you know you were making a 
 noise? You were shouting Glory! at the top of 
 your voice." " It was only a dream, dear mother ; 
 but God has been teaching me wondrously to-day, 
 and to-night he is teaching me to let go of every 
 earthly support and by simple faith alone launch 
 out into the ocean of God's infinite love." 
 
 I rested here for about two weeks, when one day 
 the Holy Spirit whispered : " ' They overcame by 
 
212 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testi- 
 mony/ You have believed and received, now con- 
 fess him." The enemy said : " Will you dare profess 
 that you are perfect in love when you have no evi- 
 dence, only the word ? " I said : " Yes ! I know, 
 by faith I know. God's word is more reliable than 
 my emotions ; when I have a favorable opportunity 
 I will tell to the glory of God what he has done 
 for me." A few days after, while seated at the 
 tea-table with a company of Christians, a clergyman 
 said to me : " My young sister, have you ever reached 
 the point where you felt that you could claim Christ 
 as your Saviour from all sin? Do you love God 
 supremely ?" I replied: "I trust I have. I hope 
 I do." Instantly the Spirit seemed to say: " That 
 is not faith. That is not definite. That does not 
 glorify me. You said you knew by faith. Tell 
 them so." I said so loud that all could hear, " Yes, 
 I know that Jesus saves me from all sin. I do 
 love God with all my heart." No sooner had I 
 uttered the words than I felt a strength and 
 power imparted that I had never before experi- 
 enced. That evening the pastor called upon me 
 to pray audibly, and while lifting my heart to 
 Christ the Holy Ghost fell upon me, and I was 
 lost in " wonder, love, and praise." 
 
 For months that followed I seemed to be in a 
 new world. The whole earth seemed illumined 
 with divine light. The very air seemed laden 
 
MARY SPARKES WHEELER. 21 3 
 
 with the breath of God and the perfumes of Para- 
 dise. What sympathy was there between my divine 
 Lord and myself! How heartily I entered into all 
 his plans for the evangelization of the world and 
 the conversion of sinners ! How my heart yearned 
 with unutterable longings for the sanctification of 
 believers and for the baptism of fire to fall upon 
 the entire Church of God ! O what humility was 
 mine, what self-abnegation, what a sinking into 
 Christ ! And when the Angel of the Covenant 
 touched my lips with living fire what a change 
 was wrought in me ! I, who had ever been afraid 
 of the sound of my own voice, so timid, so shrink- 
 ing, who had felt myself to be weakness personified, 
 was now upheld by Omnipotent power! 
 
 The word of the Lord was like fire shut up in 
 my bones. I was weary with refraining, and to 
 every call of the Spirit I responded, " Here am I, 
 Lord, send me! " 
 
 I would mention some of my difficulties and 
 triumphs in becoming established in holiness. 
 With humiliation I recall many lapses, with grati- 
 tude the forbearance and long-suffering of the 
 Holy Spirit. The lapses came in neglecting to 
 testify to this saving grace. In my earlier expe- 
 rience the enemy suggested that as so many in 
 the church were older and wiser and richer in 
 Christian graces than myself, at whose feet I could 
 sit and learn of Jesus, and they did not profess 
 
214 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 this blessing, therefore it would be immodest for 
 me to say much about it; that I could live it, and 
 the life would testify sufficiently without words. 
 As often as I yielded to this suggestion I lost 
 ground and in a measure was shorn of my strength ; 
 and I have learned by experience that I must not 
 only believe in my heart, but also confess with my 
 mouth this uttermost salvation. Many years have 
 passed since I entered this blessed " Beulah land." 
 God has kept me by his power, not stationary, but 
 constantly advancing from grace to grace, and from 
 glory to glory, until often in amazement my soul 
 cries out, " My Lord and my God ! " 
 
 " Like a river glorious 
 
 Is God's perfect peace. 
 Over all victorious 
 
 In its bright increase. 
 Perfect — yet it floweth 
 
 Fuller every day ; 
 Perfect — yet it groweth 
 
 Deeper all the way." 
 
 MARY SPARKES WHEELER. 
 Philadelphia, Pa., September 21, 1887. 
 
LUCRETIA A. CULLIS. 21 5 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 LUCRETIA A. CULLIS. 
 
 T HAD a light-hearted child-life, and never thought 
 <& of being religious. In my eleventh year, in the 
 Congregational Church, where my father and mother 
 worshiped, I listened to the earnest presentation of 
 gospel truths by Dr. E. N. Kirk. The sense of sin 
 was awakened. One night I had gone to bed, but 
 the weight of my sin I could not bear. I jumped 
 up, sought my mother's bedside, and with sobs and 
 tears besought her to pray for me. Kneeling there 
 together the answer came. I arose " in the light." 
 In the sweet relief of sins forgiven I quietly slept. 
 Sad to say, those were the days when little or no 
 help was given the child-convert. I know the mat- 
 ter was discussed of joining the Church, but put 
 aside as not suitable for one so young. Thus my 
 early ardor soon burned itself out after a few little 
 prayer-meetings which I called among my childish 
 friends. 
 
 I soon began to see inconsistencies in those about 
 me who called themselves Christians and were ac- 
 cepted by the Church. This practice increased as 
 I soon after entered the family of a loved aunt and 
 
2l6 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 uncle who were childless, and held me as their own. 
 These were the years of antislavery conflict. My 
 relatives had been excommunicated from the ortho- 
 dox Congregational Church on account of their out- 
 spoken sympathy with the slaves. So ardent was 
 their adherence to their great champion, William 
 Lloyd Garrison, that with him their hearts revolted 
 from the teachings of the Church, and from the 
 Bible that was made the bulwark of slavery. My 
 mind worked something in this way, " How is it 
 that I see in these who regard not the Church or 
 the Bible, such strong and active sympathy for the 
 suffering and oppressed, just as Jesus preached and 
 lived, while others, who are so stanch for the Church 
 and its requirements, seem dead to these Christ-like 
 demands?'' Thus I puzzled and quietly asked my- 
 self, " What is truth? " declaring at the same time, 
 " If ever I am a Christian I will be a real one." 
 Overlying these depths was a love of gay society, 
 and dawning womanhood found me still unsettled 
 and questioning. I must not omit here that during 
 all these passing years I attended Sabbath-school at 
 the Congregational Church, as it was my mother's 
 wish. I am sure it was due to the teaching of two 
 faithful, devoted women, that the early call to Christ 
 was not swallowed up in the maze of worldliness and 
 unreality, from which the religion of antislavery 
 was not powerful enough to keep. I very briefly 
 pass over the years that introduced me to a life 
 
LUCRETIA A. CULLIS. 217 
 
 of intense joy and satisfaction in all that the 
 senses can crave, of the sudden and bitter grief that 
 plunged me into utter darkness, and tell only of the 
 supreme moment when God's infinite love pierced 
 that darkness, and a heart utterly broken and help- 
 less, alone in a foreign land, heard the long-neglected 
 call of the patient, loving Christ, and responded 
 without a thought of self, " Now, Lord, I will live 
 for Thee ! " Then followed a long and lonely voy- 
 age, a freed soul chained to a weary, helpless body, 
 but " bearing all things, hoping all things," for the 
 love of Christ. 
 
 With the return to home and friends came blessed 
 work for Jesus, and, without knowing the gospel of 
 healing for the body, life was a continual testimony 
 to the " quickening of the mortal body" by the 
 " Holy Ghost that dwelleth in you." 
 
 To read that u In the last days, saith God, I will 
 pour out my Spirit" upon all flesh, and your sons and 
 your daughters shall prophesy ..." became to 
 my soul an immediate possession, my entire being 
 responded to its power, for " out of the depths " 
 had I cried, " My God, I will live for thee ! " 
 
 " The victory that overcometh " seemed easy, it 
 became a testimony that could not be withheld, 
 and, woman that I was, with the Church traditions 
 my birthright, there was a fire within that all the 
 cold water without could not quench ; and, diffident 
 as any real woman must be, I yet sought a church 
 
218 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 where free vent could be given to the pent-up Holy 
 Ghost, or I must cry, " Against thee, thee only, have 
 I sinned ! " Little by little, God in his goodness led 
 me to know little companies where his " Spirit had 
 free course/' and finally into that large place where 
 my husband and I have walked these twenty years 
 in the " work of faith," knowing God's faithfulness 
 to answer prayer, to deliver from temptation, to 
 keep from evil, to preserve unto his heavenly king- 
 dom, to make his service a rest, a joy ; where we 
 are not continually digging up our hearts to see 
 what roots are there, but sure that he who has 
 " planted us in the likeness of his resurrection " is 
 attending to the " growing up into him," " unto the 
 measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ." 
 
 It has become the normal condition to " be care- 
 ful for nothing, but in every thing, by prayer and 
 supplication, with thanksgiving, to let our requests 
 be made known unto God, and the peace of God 
 doth keep. ..." 
 
 In the years before my faith became really active, 
 in all time of need my Bible was not an unused 
 book ; its words were food to my soul, many of which 
 were stored in my memory, and I am positive that 
 God was watering that which was of his own plant- 
 ing, so that in the harvest-time of my sorrow, like 
 goodly fruit the promises fell from the bough of 
 the Tree of Life at the lightest real touch of faith. 
 There was no digging necessary then ; the sub-soil 
 
LUCRETIA A. CULLIS. 219 
 
 was laid bare, and quickly the Word became " spirit 
 and life," the seal of the divine union. Thus is 
 explained the easy natural reception of " The 
 Promise of the Father." 
 
 As I afterward came to know, my union with 
 Christ was only kept unbroken as, by a momen- 
 tary faith, I reckoned myself " dead unto sin and 
 alive unto God." Not a passive, but an active 
 faith, that heeds the injunction, to " watch and 
 pray lest ye enter into temptation," so abiding in 
 Him that the life of Christ is renewed day by day. 
 This is no life of constraint, or anxious care, but 
 a rest in his love. The bridegroom of my soul hath 
 brought me to his banqueting house, and his ban- 
 ner over me is love. My heart is his kingdom, and 
 my eyes are unto him. 
 
 " Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony 
 of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner ; but be thou 
 partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel according 
 to the power of God ; who hath saved us, and called 
 us with an holy calling, not according to our works, 
 but according to his own purpose and grace, which 
 was given us in Christ Jesus before the world be- 
 gan." — 2 Tim. 1. 8, 9. 
 
 LUCRETIA A. CULLIS. 
 
 Beacon Hill Place, Boston, Mass., Aug. 16, 1887. 
 
220 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 CHARLES CULLIS, M.D. 
 
 T WAS brought up in a very respectable church, 
 j£> and knew nothing about conversion. At about 
 the age of seventeen I felt that I ought to be a 
 Christian. How, I did not know. Nobody told 
 me. I supposed the only way would be to read the 
 Bible and pray, and I went at it. When I was con- 
 verted I do not know, but I am very sure I was. I 
 don't know the date, for there was no particular 
 sensation or emotion to mark it. Some four or five 
 years* after that I met with a great sorrow, and I 
 consecrated myself wholly to God. Soon after I 
 thought about doing something for the Master, and 
 it came about, in answer to prayer, in the establish- 
 ment of a Consumptives' Home and other insti- 
 tutions. My thought then was how to conduct 
 this work — whether or not I should beg. The 
 promises of God were brought very forcibly to 
 my mind as to whether they were true or not. I 
 puzzled over them for a few days, and the more I puz- 
 zled and thought the more doubt began to come in, 
 until one day I took my Bible between my two 
 hands, and, holding it up, in my room alone, I said, 
 
CHARLES CULLIS, M.D. 221 
 
 " I will believe every word inside of these two 
 covers whether I understand it or not." 
 
 From that moment to this I have never had the 
 least shadow of doubt of the truth of God's word, 
 and have acted upon the promises and lived ac- 
 cording to them for nearly twenty-five years. 
 
 This was my justified state, in which I found a 
 good deal of comfort ; but how should I get rid of 
 the natural temperament, and the failing, which was 
 a great one with me, of getting irritated over very 
 little things, and then getting vexed with myself 
 because I did get irritated ! I had spent hours and 
 hours- upon my knees, with tears running down my 
 cheeks, praying that the Lord would help me to 
 overcome this ; but he did not. 
 
 One day, in prayer, the Lord's Prayer came home 
 to me very blessedly by the Spirit, in its closing 
 sentences, " Thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
 and the glory." It flashed through my soul in a 
 moment, u Thine is the power, and, Lord, I have 
 been asking thee to help me to overcome this; 
 thine is the power to do it all ; " and with joy un- 
 speakable in my soul I got up from my knees 
 praising God for victory. Whether this was my re- 
 ception of sanctification or not I do not know. It 
 is the only very marked experience of deliverance 
 that I ever had. I believe that years ago he gave 
 me a clean heart and baptized me with the Holy 
 Ghost. There have been occasional slight lapses 
 
222 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 through weakness of faith, but the light has been 
 burning steadily from that day to this. My Saviour 
 has become more and more precious to me, and I 
 am conscious that the blood cleanseth, and the 
 Holy Ghost abides. 
 
 CHARLES CULLIS. 
 
 Boston, Mass., Feb. 24, 1888. 
 
PART SECOND, 
 
 PROF. ASA MAHAN, LL.D. 
 
 (CONGREGATIONALISM) 
 
 i|*|N Sabbath, November 9, 1884, I completed the 
 T the eighty-fifth year of my life. The first 
 seventeen years of this period were spent in the 
 darkness of impenitency and sin, a state rightly rep- 
 resented by the words " having no hope, and with- 
 out God in the world." The following eighteen 
 years I lived and walked in the dim twilight of that 
 semi-faith which fully knows Christ in the sphere of 
 "justification by faith," but knows almost nothing 
 of him in the sphere of" sanctification by faith," and 
 is absolutely ignorant of him in the promise, " he 
 shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with 
 fire." During the subsequent fifty years I have 
 found grace " to walk with God " in that sphere of 
 cloudless sunlight in which " we are complete in 
 Christ," and know him as " our wisdom, righteous- 
 ness, sanctification and redemption " — know him 
 not only as " the Lamb of God who taketh away 
 the sin of the world," but as " he that baptizeth 
 with the Holy Ghost," and in which, consequently, 
 
224 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 " God is our everlasting light, and the days of our 
 mourning are ended." 
 
 I am distinctly aware of the fact that should I, in 
 speaking of the past, use a single word or sentence 
 for self-glorification, I should grievously offend my 
 God and Saviour, and in a corresponding degree 
 wrong my own soul. My object will be to state 
 merely such facts and characteristics of the periods 
 of my life as may be interesting and instructive to 
 the reader. 
 
 Here permit me to say, in general, that while I was 
 in public regard an unexceptionably moral youth, 
 no individual ever did or ever can lead a more god- 
 less life than I did. I never in a single instance, 
 excepting at my mothers knee, offered a prayer to 
 God in any form. I never entertained or expressed 
 a sentiment of thanksgiving for a blessing received, 
 or confessed a sin to my God ; nor did I ever do or 
 avoid doing a single act from regard to his will, 
 favor or displeasure. 
 
 Two facts peculiarized my natural characteristics. 
 On one side my nature was specially tender and 
 sympathetic; while, on the other, it was equally 
 characterized by the strongest and most positive 
 temperaments and propensities. My temper, for 
 example, was very easily excited, and when I 
 was excited I was utterly reckless of all con- 
 sequences in time or eternity, and of any pain 
 that might be inflicted upon me. The thought 
 
PROF. ASA MAHAN, LL.D. 22$ 
 
 of that temper so horrified me, while alone 
 in my father's pasture, at the age of ten years, that 
 I exclaimed aloud, u This temper will ruin me ! " 
 From my early years the principle of ambition had 
 continuous and absolute control over my daily 
 thoughts and all my plans for future life. I would 
 be an educated man, and in that sphere " a man of 
 renown." Everywhere I openly avowed that pur- 
 pose and made it a leading theme of conversation 
 with those of my own age especially. In no youth 
 that I ever knew did the principles of pride and self- 
 will, the latter especially, exist with such strength as 
 in myself. A more restless nature no one, as it seems 
 to me, ever did possess. Those facts sufficiently in- 
 dicate my natural disposition and temperament. 
 My mother once called me to her and said, " The 
 neighbors who visited here yesterday afternoon had 
 a conversation about you. They all agreed that if 
 you should live on to manhood you would become 
 a very good or a very bad man. There would be 
 nothing half-way about you." 
 
 MY CONVERSION, AND THE SUCCEEDING EIGHTEEN 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 Of my conversion, I may say of a truth that it 
 
 was, in the judgment of all who knew me, of a very 
 
 marked and decisive character, being followed by a 
 
 visible change in character and life, such as was 
 
 seldom witnessed. During the first five years of my 
 15 
 
226 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 Christian life I was directly instrumental in origi- 
 nating four important revivals of religion — three of 
 these occurring in the schools which I taught, and 
 these where no work of grace existed within hearing 
 distance around. Nor was my ministry of eight 
 years' continuance, during this period, a fruitless 
 one ; no less, I suppose, than 2,000 souls being 
 added to the churches through my instrumentality. 
 
 MARKED CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FIRST EIGHT- 
 EEN YEARS OF MY CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 1. There was at length, notwithstanding all my 
 prayers and efforts to the contrary, a gradual fading 
 out of that joy, and a conscious diminution of the 
 ardency of that love, until I was fully at home in the 
 sentiment of the hymn : 
 
 " Where is the blessedness I knew 
 When first I saw the Lord ? 
 
 "What peaceful hours I once enjoyed, 
 
 How sweet their memory still ; 
 But they have left an aching void 
 
 The world can never fill." 
 
 That " aching void " remained a characteristic of 
 my religious life up to the close of the period now 
 under consideration. 
 
 2. Not long after my religious life commenced 
 I found, to my great sorrow and regret, that those 
 sinful propensities which had held absolute control 
 
PROF. ASA MAHAN, LL.D. 227 
 
 over me during the era of my impenitency still 
 existed, and when temptation arose " warred in my 
 members " with seeming undiminished strength, and 
 were frequently " bringing me into captivity to the 
 law of sin which was in my members." No be- 
 liever, as it seems to me, ever did or ever can strive 
 more resolutely and untiringly than I did to subdue 
 and hold in subjection his evil propensities, or made 
 less progress to effect his purpose than I did. 
 When subject to strong and especially sudden 
 temptation I found myself not more than a con- 
 queror, but a groaning captive. For eighteen 
 years, for example, I maintained a most determined 
 war upon that evil temper; yet, when suddenly 
 provoked, I found myself, and that invariably, be- 
 trayed into words and acts of which I would have 
 occasion to repent and confess as sins. How often 
 did I exclaim, "O wretched man that I am! who 
 shall deliver me from the body of this death?" 
 Nor did my struggles and most determined resolu- 
 tions issue in any seeming increase of power over 
 these propensities. 
 
 3. During these eighteen years, after the fading 
 of my primal joys, I was from time to time troubled 
 and not unfrequently agonized with painful doubts 
 — doubts about my standing as a believer, about the 
 truth of the Gospel, and a future state as revealed 
 in the same. I seemed to myself to be among the 
 number who feared the Lord, obeyed the voice of 
 
228 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 his servants, and yet walked in darkness and had no 
 light. 
 
 4. As far as the inner life was concerned, I seemed 
 to myself to be making no progress. I did consider- 
 ably grow in knowledge, and in power as a preacher, 
 but the light within did not brighten on toward the 
 perfect day. 
 
 5. The fear and dread of death, which had thrown 
 such a deep gloom over my impenitent life, con- 
 tinued to oppress me during the eighteen years 
 under consideration, rendering my ministerial visi- 
 tations to the sick and attendance upon funerals 
 seasons of great trial and pensiveness. Thus far 
 u through fear of death I had all my life-time been 
 subject to bondage." 
 
 6. I did know how to preach the Gospel to the 
 impenitent, to lead inquiring sinners unto Christ for 
 the pardon of sin ; and I could also u preach the 
 doctrines " to believers, urge them to faithfulness in 
 duty, to labor and pray for the conversion of sinners, 
 and to liberal contributions for every good cause. 
 In all these respects I had good success in my 
 sacred calling; but when I reflected upon such pre- 
 cepts and utterances as the following: " Feed my 
 sheep," " Comfort ye the feeble-minded, support 
 the weak," " I long to see you, that I may impart 
 to you some spiritual gift, to the end that ye may 
 be established," I said to myself, " There is a lack 
 in me of essential qualifications for the highest 
 
PROF. ASA MAHAN, LL.D. 229 
 
 functions of my sacred calling." I did not know 
 how to conduct religious conversation among my 
 people ; " to feed the flock of God." 
 
 7. I saw there was an essential defect in my ex- 
 perience and character as a Christian. I read and 
 prayerfully pondered such passages as the following; 
 namely, " The water I shall give him shall be in him 
 a well of water springing up into everlasting life ; " 
 " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind 
 is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee ; " 
 " Whom having not seen, ye love, and in whom, 
 though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice 
 with joy unspeakable and full of glory ; " " In all 
 these things we are more than conquerors through 
 him that hath loved us," etc. As I read such pas- 
 sages I said to myself, " My experience hardly 
 approaches that which is here revealed as the com- 
 mon privilege of all the saints." In the secret of my 
 own spirit I said, " I will never cease inquiry and 
 prayer until ' God shall open the eyes of my under- 
 standing, that I may know the things which are 
 freely given us of God/ ' After some years of most 
 diligent inquiry and prayer my eyes were opened, 
 and " I beheld with open face, as in a glass, the 
 glory of the Lord," and " knew the love of Christ, 
 which passeth knowledge," and merged " out of 
 darkness into God's marvelous light." In that 
 light I have lived and walked for the past fifty 
 years. 
 
230 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 When I reflected, as I often did, upon this up-and 
 down sinning and repenting form of life on this 
 lower plane, I frequently said to myself, " This does 
 indeed seem to be a strange kind of service to offer 
 to my God and Redeemer. I know, however, of no 
 other way of leading a religious life but to do as I 
 am doing — that is, renewing a broken purpose as 
 often as broken, and after every fall to rise up and 
 start anew with the same purpose as before." 
 When a sense of weariness and despondency came 
 over me in view of the facts of such a life, I often 
 repeated to myself the words, " Faint, yet pursu- 
 ing." 
 
 During all those years such passages as the fol- 
 lowing were a dead letter to me: passages in which 
 " the very God of peace " promises, on condition 
 that " he is inquired of by us to do it for us," that 
 he will himself " sprinkle clean water upon us, and 
 we shall be clean ; " that " he will turn his hand 
 upon us, and purely purge away our dross, and take 
 away all our sin ; " that he will " sanctify us wholly, 
 and preserve our whole spirit and soul and body 
 blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 When I apprehended that he was just as able to 
 u sanctify me wholly" as to justify me fully, then, 
 totally renouncing self and self-dependence, I 
 entered upon the faith-life in its true and proper 
 form. 
 
PROF. ASA MAHAN, LL.D. 23 I 
 
 MY FIFTY YEARS' WALK WITH GOD. 
 
 And here permit me to remark that there has 
 been during this entire period a total disappearance 
 of all those painful experiences which threw such a 
 " disastrous twilight" over the preceding eighteen 
 years of my Christian life. The peace and joy 
 which, as an unfailing and unfading light, have 
 filled and occupied these past fifty years have so 
 far surpassed and eclipsed the " peaceful hours en- 
 joyed " during the ardency of my " first love " that 
 the latter is seldom " remembered or comes into 
 mind." Not a throb of pain from the " aching 
 void " so long left in my heart by the passing away 
 of those " peaceful hours" has been experienced 
 during these fifty years. On the other hand, that 
 void has been occupied and filled by " the peace of 
 God " during this entire period. 
 
 Djring these fifty years I have almost, and I 
 might say quite, ceased to be conscious of the 
 existence and action of those evil propensities (lusts) 
 which, during the preceding eighteen years, " warred 
 in my members " and so often rendered me a groan- 
 ing captive " under the law of sin and death," 
 " the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus having 
 made me free " from that old law. Immediately 
 after my entrance into " the brightness of the 
 divine rising " I became blissfully conscious that 
 all my propensities were, by divine grace, put under 
 my absolute control ; that I was no longer a groan- 
 
232 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 ing captive, but the Lord's free man — free and 
 divinely empowered to employ all faculties and pro- 
 pensities, physical and mental, as " instruments of 
 righteousness in the divine service." 
 
 In but one single instance, for example, have I, 
 during all these fifty years, been conscious at all of 
 a movement of that evil temper, the strongest of all 
 my propensities, and that was but fbr an instant, 
 and occurred some thirty or forty years since, no 
 one suspecting the fact but myself. Brother Finney, 
 after our very intimate association of fifteen years' 
 continuance at Oberlin, made the statement to a 
 leading minister, a mutual friend of ours : u Brother 
 Mahan never gets angry, nor does he ever, under 
 the severest provocations or the most trying and dis- 
 turbing providences, lose the even balance of his 
 mind. ,, 
 
 As the result of fifty years' experience and careful 
 self-watchfulness I present myself as a witness for 
 Christ, that " our old man may be crucified with 
 him/' and " the body of sin destroyed, that hence- 
 forth we should not serve sin." Were those old 
 propensities against which I so long and vainly 
 fought, and whose existence and action within I so 
 long and deeply lamented, now warring or acting at 
 all in the inner man, should I not be, sometimes, at 
 least, conscious of the fact ? 
 
 Nor has a shadow of one of those doubts which 
 so frequently darkened my vision — doubts of my 
 
PROF. ASA MAHAN, LL.D, 233 
 
 standing with God, of the truth of his word, and 
 of an eternity to come — had for a moment a place 
 in my experience since " the Sun of Righteousness 
 rose upon my soul with healing in his w T ings." 
 
 In the inner life also there has been during these 
 fifty years, not as formerly, little or no conscious 
 growth, but an increasing knowledge of my in- 
 dwelling God and Saviour, and a consciously grow- 
 ing " meetness for the inheritance of the saints in 
 light/' as well as of the doctrine and the great revela- 
 tions of the sacred word. Knowledge now, also, as it 
 had not then, has a consciously transforming power, 
 changing the moral being into the image of Christ, 
 " from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the 
 Lord." 
 
 The fear and dread of death which threw such 
 a deep gloom over my impenitence, and 'continued 
 to oppress me during the eighteen years of my 
 primal Christian life, has never approached my 
 mind since " the brightness of the rising " at the 
 commencement of the period now under consider- 
 ation. O ! how sweet is the whisper of the angel, 
 
 " In my room, 
 A few more shadows and he will come." 
 
 As long as Christ has work for me here I much 
 prefer earth to heaven ; when that work shall have 
 been finished I am possessed of but one desire, and 
 that is, " To be absent from the body and present 
 
234 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 with the Lord." My entrance into the higher life 
 was attended by two important facts — a vast increase 
 of effective power in preaching Christ to the impen- 
 itent, and " the edification of the body of Christ ' 
 (believers) became the leading characteristic aid 
 luxury of my ministry. Religious conversions be- 
 came as easy and spontaneous as the outflow c f 
 water from a living fountain. How often have I had 
 occasion to repeat the word of the apostle as appli- 
 cable to myself: " Blessed be God, even the Father 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, 
 and the God of all comfort ; who comforteth us in 
 all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort 
 them which are in any trouble, by the comfort 
 wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." 
 
 Should I designate what I regard as one of the 
 leading, if not the leading, characteristics of my ex- 
 perience and life during these fifty years I should 
 refer to such Scriptures as the following : " Thou 
 wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is 
 stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee ; " 
 " And the fruit of righteousness shall be peace, and 
 the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance 
 forever ; " " Be careful for nothing ; but in every 
 thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving 
 let your requests be made known to God. And the 
 peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall 
 keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." 
 At intervals my joy in God becomes so full and 
 
PROF. ASA MAHAN, LL.D. 235 
 
 overflowing that it seems as if the great deep of the 
 mind is being broken up. But my peace, quietness, 
 and assurance know no interruption. u In whatever 
 state I am, I have learned therewith to be con- 
 tent ; " my abiding-place being the center of the 
 sweet will of my God. 
 
 Should I be asked, " Have you not sinned during 
 these many years? " my reply would be, " I set up 
 no such pretension as that. This I do profess, how- 
 ever : that I find grace to " serve Christ with a pure 
 conscience/ But while ' I know nothing by (against) 
 myself, yet am I not hereby justified, but He that 
 judgeth me is God/ I do ' have confidence toward 
 God/ because ' my heart condemns me not/ I 
 have this evidence also, that the love I have does 
 cast out all ' fear that hath torment/ In the 
 consciousness of such facts I commit to Christ the 
 keeping of my soul, and that in ' the full assurance 
 of faith,' the full assurance of hope, i the full assur- 
 ance of understanding/ " 
 
 As the result of these fifty years' experience and 
 widely-extended and careful observation, together 
 with the most careful and prayerful study of every 
 part of the w r ord of God which bears upon the sub- 
 ject, I may add here that not a shadow of a doubt 
 rests upon my mind of the absolute truth of these 
 great doctrines, namely, the doctrines of justifi- 
 cation by faith, sanctification by faith, and of the 
 baptism of the Holy Ghost to be received by faith. 
 
236 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 Soon after I became conscious of a personal union 
 
 with Christ, M I in him and he in me," I inquired of 
 
 the Lord whether such blissful union could be 
 
 an abiding one. In specific answer to such inquiry 
 
 this promise was, ail-impressively, presented to my 
 
 faith, and has ever since abode in my heart as the 
 
 light of my life ; namely, " The sun shall be no more 
 
 thy light by day ; neither for brightness shall the 
 
 moon give light unto thee ; but the Lord shall be 
 
 unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. 
 
 Thy sun shall no more go down ; neither shall thy 
 
 moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine 
 
 everlasting light, and the day of mourning shall be 
 
 ended." 
 
 ASA MAHAN. 
 
FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL. 237 
 
 II. 
 
 FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL.* 
 
 (CHURCH OF ENGLAND.) 
 
 .J^NE day Frances received in a letter a tiny book 
 T with the title "All for Jesus." She read it 
 carefully. Its contents arrested her attention. It 
 set forth a fullness of Christian experience and bless- 
 ing exceeding that to which she had as yet attained. 
 She was gratefully conscious of having for many 
 years loved the Lord and delighted in his service ; 
 but there was in her experience a falling short of the 
 standard, not so much of a holy w T alk and conversa- 
 tion as of uniform brightness and continuous enjoy- 
 ment in the divine life. " All for Jesus " she found 
 went straight to this point of the need and longing 
 of her soul. Writing in reply to the author of the 
 little book she said : "I do so long for deeper and 
 fuller teaching in my own heart ; ' All for Jesus ' has 
 touched me very much. I know I love Jesus, and 
 there are times when I feel such intensity of love to 
 him that I have not words to describe it. I rejoice, 
 too, in him as my ' Master' and ' Sovereign/ but I 
 want to come nearer still, to have the full realization 
 
 * From a tract published by James H. Earle, Boston, written by the sister of 
 Miss Havergal, and entitled F. R. H's Second Experience. 
 
238 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 of John 14. 21, and to know ' the power of his res- 
 urrection ' even if it be with the fellowship of his 
 sufferings. And all this, not exactly for my own joy 
 alone, but for others. So I want Jesus to speak to 
 me, to say ' many things ' to me, that I may speak 
 for him to others with real power. It is not knowing 
 doctrine, but being with him, which will give this." 
 
 God did not leave her long in this state of mind. 
 He himself had shown her that there were "regions 
 beyond " of blessed experience and service ; had 
 kindled in her very soul the intense desire to go for- 
 ward and possess them ; and now, in his own grace 
 and love, he took her by the hand and led her into 
 the goodly land. A few words from her corre- 
 spondent on the power of Jesus to keep those who 
 abide in him from falling, and on the continually 
 present power of his blood (" the blood of Jesus 
 Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin") were used 
 by the Master in effecting this. Very joyously she 
 replied: " I see it all, and I have the blessing." 
 
 The " sunless ravines " were now forever passed, 
 and henceforth her peace and joy flowed onward, 
 deepening and widening under the teaching of God 
 the Holy Ghost. The blessing she had received had 
 (to use her own words) " lifted her whole life into 
 sunshine, of which all she had previously experienced 
 was but as pale and passing April gleams, compared 
 with the fullness of summer glory." 
 
 The practical effect of this was most evident in 
 
FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL. 239 
 
 her daily, true-hearted, whole-hearted service for 
 her King, and also in the increased joyousness of 
 the unswerving obedience of her home life, the 
 surest test of all. 
 
 To the reality of this I do most willingly and 
 fully testify. Some time afterward, in answer to 
 my question, when we were talking quietly together, 
 Frances said : " Yes it was on Advent Sunday, Dec. 
 2d, 1873, I first saw clearly the blessedness of true 
 consecration. I saw it as a flash of electric light, and 
 what you see you can never tinsee. There must be 
 full surrender before there can be full blessedness. 
 God admits you by the one into the other. He 
 himself showed me all this most clearly. You know 
 how singularly I have been withheld from attending 
 all conventions and conferences ; man's teaching has 
 consequently had but little to do with it. First, I 
 was shown that ' the blood of Jesus Christ his Son 
 cleanseth us from all sin,' and then it was made 
 plain to me that he who had thus cleansed me had 
 power to keep me clean ; so I just utterly yielded 
 myself to him and utterly trusted him to keep me," 
 
 I replied that " it seemed to me if we did thus 
 yield ourselves to the Lord we could not take our- 
 selves back again, any more than the Levitical sac- 
 rifices, once accepted by the priest, were returned by 
 him to the offerer." 
 
 u Yes," she rejoined, "just so. Still, I see there 
 can be renewal of the surrender, as in our commun- 
 
240 FORTY WITNESSES. : 
 
 ion service, where we say: * And here we offer and 
 present unto Thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and 
 bodies/ And there may also be a fuller surrender, 
 even long after a surrender has once, or many times 
 before, been made. He has brought me into the 
 ' highway of holiness/ up which I trust every day to 
 progress, continually pressing forward, led by the 
 Spirit of God. And I do indeed find that with it 
 comes a happy trusting, not only in all great matters, 
 but in all the little things also, so that I cannot say 
 ' so and so worries me/ 
 
 " I would distinctly state, that it is only as and 
 while a soul is under the full power of the blood of 
 Christ that it can be cleansed from all sin ; that one 
 moment's withdrawal from that power, and it is 
 again actively because really sinning ; and that it is 
 only as, and while, kept by the power of God himself 
 that we are not sinning against him ; one instant of 
 standing alone is certain fall ! But (premising 
 that) have we not been limiting the cleansing power 
 of the precious blood when applied by the Holy 
 Spirit, and also the keeping power of our God? 
 Have we not been limiting i John I. 7, by practically 
 making it refer only to ' the remission of sins that 
 are past ' instead of taking the grand simplicity of 
 ' cleanseth us from all sin ? ' ' All ' is all ; and as we 
 may trust him to cleanse from the stain of past sins 
 so we may trust him to cleanse from all present de- 
 filement ; yes, all ! If not, we take away from this 
 
FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL. 24 1 
 
 most precious promise, and, by refusing to take it in 
 its fullness, lose the fullness of its application and 
 power. Then we limit God's power to ' keep ;' we 
 look at our frailty more than at his omnipotence. 
 Where is the line to be drawn beyond which he is 
 not able? The very keeping implies total helpless- 
 ness without it, and the very cleansing most dis- 
 tinctly implies defilement without it. It was that 
 one word 'cleanseth' which opened the door of a 
 very glory of hope and joy to me. I had never seen 
 the force of the tense before, a continual present, 
 always a present tense, not a present which the next 
 moment becomes a past. It goes on cleansing, and 
 I have no words to tell how my heart rejoices in it. 
 Not a coming to be cleansed in the fountain only, 
 but a remaining in the fountain, so that it may and 
 can go on cleansing. 
 
 •"Why should we pare down the commands and 
 promises of God to the level of what we have 
 hitherto experienced of what God is ' able to do/ or 
 even of what we have thought he might be able to 
 do for us? Why not receive God's promises, noth- 
 ing doubting, just as they stand ? ' Take the shield 
 of faith, whereby ye shall be able to quench all the 
 fiery darts of the wicked ;' ' He is able to make all 
 grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all 
 sufficiency in all things ;- and so on, through whole 
 constellations of promises, which surely mean really 
 
 and fully what they say. 
 16 
 
242 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 " One arrives at the same thing, starting almost 
 from anywhere. Take Philippians 4. 19, ' your 
 need ;' well, what is my great need and craving of 
 soul? Surely it is now (having been justified by 
 faith, and hnving assurance of salvation,) to be made 
 holy by the continual sanctifying power of God's 
 Spirit ; to be kept from grieving the Lord Jesus; to 
 be kept from thinking or doing whatever is not 
 accordant with his holy will. 
 
 44 Oh what a need is this! And it is said ' He 
 shall supply all need ;' now shall we turn round and 
 say ' all ' does not mean quite all ? Both as to the 
 commands and the promises, it seems to me that 
 anything short of believing them as they stand is 
 but another form of ' yea hath God said ? ' 
 
 " Thus accepting, in simple and unquestioning 
 faith, God's commands and promises, one seems to 
 be at once brought into intensified views of every- 
 thing. Never, O never before, did sin seem so 
 hateful, so really ' intolerable,' nor watchfulness so 
 necessary, and a keenness and uninterruptedness of 
 watchfulness too, beyond what one ever thought of, 
 only somehow different, not a distressed sort but a 
 happy sort. It is the watchfulness of a sentinel 
 when his captain is standing by him on the ramparts, 
 when his eye is more than ever on the alert for any 
 sign of the approaching enemy, because he knows 
 they can only approach to be defeated. Then, too, 
 the ' all for Jesus ' comes in ; one sees there is no 
 
FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL. 243 
 
 half way; it must be absolutely all yielded up, be- 
 cause the least unyielded or doubtful point is sin, 
 let alone the great fact of owing all to him. And 
 one cannot, dare not, temporize with sin. I know 
 and have found that even a momentary hesitation 
 about yielding, or obeying, or trusting and believ- 
 ing, vitiates all ; the communion is broken, the joy 
 vanished ; only, thank God, this never need continue 
 even five minutes ; faith may plunge instantly into 
 1 the fountain open for sin and uncleanness,' and 
 again find its power to cleanse and restore. Then 
 one wants to have more and more light ; one does 
 not shrink from painful discoveries of evil, because 
 one so wants to have the unknown depths of it 
 cleansed as well as what comes to the surface. 
 ' Cleanse me thoroughly from my sins ;' and one 
 prays to be shown this. But so far as one does see 
 one must ' put away sin ' and obey entirely ; and here 
 again his power is our resource, enabling us to do 
 what without it we could not do. 
 
 " One of the intensest moments of my life was 
 when I saw the force of that word ' cleanseth.' The 
 utterly unexpected and altogether unimagined sense 
 of its fulfillment to me, on simply believing it in its 
 fullness, was just indescribable. I expected nothing 
 like it short of heaven. I am so thankful that, in 
 the whole matter, there was as little human instru- 
 mentality as well could be, for certainly two sen- 
 tences in letters from a total stranger were little. 
 
244 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 I am so conscious of his. direct teaching and guid- 
 ance through his word and Spirit in the matter that 
 I cannot think I can ever unsee it again. I have 
 waited many months before writing this, so it is no 
 new and untested theory to me ; in fact, experience 
 came before theory and is more to me than any 
 theory. 
 
MRS. MARY D. JAMES. 245 
 
 III. 
 
 MRS. MARY D. JAMES.* 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 ^IDORN in Trenton, New Jersey, August 7, 18 10, 
 X died in New York city, October 4, 1883. She 
 was reared in a Christian home and was an unusually 
 thoughtful, conscientious child. She was clearly 
 converted at a little more than ten years of age, 
 February 18, 182 1. Of her early experience she 
 wrote : " My peace and joy in the Lord abounded, 
 and for some weeks I felt nothing contrary to per- 
 fect love/' Afterward she " felt the rising of de- 
 praved nature, which, though subdued, still remained, 
 and was constantly striving to gain the ascendency 
 and usurp the throne of which the adorable Re- 
 deemer had possession. To prevent sin from hav- 
 ing dominion over me was my unceasing effort, and 
 my soul was pained and grieved exceedingly to 
 feel the workings of this vile enemy within." 
 
 A few months after her entrance upon the Chris- 
 tian life the Rev. Joseph Lybrand became her 
 
 * This account was prepared for this volume by the son and biographer of Mrs^ 
 James. As far as possible the narration is given in her own words, as indicated by 
 quotation marks, the passages in the third person having been so written as a 
 matter of her taste. 
 
246 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 pastor, and " most clearly, forcibly and constantly 
 preached the doctrine of a full salvation as the 
 privilege of all the children of God." He also took 
 pains to explain this experience to " little Mary," 
 the youngest lamb of his flock. She writes : " From 
 the hour in which it was first presented as my 
 privilege I sought it with unremitting diligence. 
 I presented myself to God i a living sacrifice/ in 
 the bonds of an everlasting covenant, and began to 
 reckon myself to be ' dead indeed unto sin, but 
 alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord/ 
 This, I think, was about six months after my con- 
 version. I did not at that time receive the evidence 
 that the work was fully wrought." 
 
 In her diary she wrote, January 3, 1823: "I 
 thirst for full redemption in the blood of the Lamb. 
 O Jesus, give me power to lay hold of thy promise 
 by faith. I cannot rest till I am wholly sanctified." 
 
 Two days later she attended a prayer-meeting in 
 which she was called upon to pray, but " was 
 tempted to refuse." " As the leader of the meeting 
 said the second time, i Pray, sister Mary, God will 
 help you/ she looked up to Jesus, casting herself 
 upon him, and began her supplication. Having 
 uttered only a sentence or two her spirit was 
 caught up into the infinite presence, and, for more 
 than an hour, she was talking with Jesus face to 
 face, unconscious of all earthly things. Her body 
 was prostrated as if lifeless. It was during that 
 
MRS. MARY D. JAMES. 247 
 
 memorable hour that the all-cleansing blood was 
 applied and her heart was made pure." 
 
 January 10, 1823, this child, then less than thir- 
 teen years of age, wrote in her diary : " Glory to 
 God in the highest! He has heard my prayers, and 
 this night my soul rejoices in that ' perfect love ' 
 which ' casteth out fear.' O how happy I am ! 
 Where shall I begin to praise my Saviour for his 
 goodness to me? It is now more than a year since 
 I enlisted under the banner of Jesus, and he has 
 kept me by his power until this time. I have had 
 many temptations and trials, and sometimes have 
 not lived as near to God as I ought to have done, 
 but, blessed be his dear name, he has upheld me by 
 his gracious hand, and I am at this moment a wit, 
 ness that his precious blood cleanseth from all sin." 
 
 While yet a young woman, Mary Yard wrote in 
 a letter to a friend : " To describe the difference 
 between my feelings at the time of my justification 
 and sanctification would be impossible. Indeed, I 
 believe that sanctification is but the extension or 
 fullness of the former blessing, the brightness of 
 meridian splendor compared to the dawn. . . . But 
 the figure will not hold good any further than the 
 sun's meridian, for the Christian having the fullness 
 of perfect love still goes onward. l Higher mounts 
 his soul and higher/ His capacities enlarge, and he 
 abounds in love yet more and more." 
 
 Twice the brightness of the evidence of this ex- 
 
248 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 perience was dimmed. While yet a little child she 
 listened to the advice of older persons and ceased 
 to speak definitely of the grace given her, and " had 
 a season of spiritual darkness, which, however, was 
 of short duration. " Again in 1835, upon her removal 
 to Mount Holly, N. J., as the wife of Mr. Henry B. 
 James, she ceased to bear testimony specifically in re- 
 gard to full redemption. " She sincerely believed her- 
 self justifiable in withholding her testimony to the 
 power of the blood that cleanseth. For a long 
 time she pursued this course without compunctions 
 of conscience, but wondering why she was shorn of 
 strength when she attempted to speak or pray, 
 and why she felt that there seemed an in- 
 tervening mist, half concealing the brightness of 
 her Saviour's face, while she felt the same ardent 
 love to him and devotion to the interests of his 
 kingdom. The consciousness that his presence 
 was a less vivid realization caused her deep sorrow/' 
 This sorrow was increased when Mrs. James learned 
 that her course in this regard had hindered others. 
 In 1840, during a visit to the home of Dr, and Mrs. 
 W. C. Palmer, in New York, this matter was set 
 forever at rest. " From this visit she returned to 
 her home full of holy energy and strong purpose 
 to work for God. Her glowing soul longed to 
 show forth his praise who so gloriously revealed 
 himself to her." She at once began to speak in 
 unmistakable terms of the doctrine and experience — 
 
MRS, MARY D. JAMES. 249 
 
 a course from which she never deviated during the 
 forty-three years that remained to her on earth. 
 She never professed to be " sinless/' or " perfect," or 
 " holy," but loved, on all occasions when she thought 
 it would honor her Master, to confess that Jesus 
 saved her completely and filled her with his perfect 
 love. In a letter to a friend she wrote : " In the 
 retrospect of sixty-two years it gives me unspeak- 
 able pleasure to know that my entire life has 
 been consecrated to his blessed service. O, if I 
 had served him more faithfully, more acceptably ! 
 It is the sweetest joy of my heart to look up to 
 my Saviour and say : 
 
 * Thy righteousness alone 
 
 Can clothe and beautify, 
 I wrap it round my soul ; 
 
 In it I live and die.' " 
 
 After threescore years of useful, happy living in 
 the consciousness of this full salvation, she sat 
 one morning talking with those " of like precious 
 faith," in regard to the great salvation, when she 
 "was not, for God took her." 
 
2 SO FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 IV. 
 
 REV. WILLIAM BUTLER, D.D.* 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 FROM childhood I was connected with the Epis- 
 copal Church — an attendant on its services and 
 Sunday-school, and diligent in all its duties ; so that 
 I " profited above many " of my class associates, 
 and bore off, because of my superior knowledge of 
 the word of God, several of the valuable premiums 
 in the yearly examinations. No doubt of the safety 
 and graciousness of my condition had ever entered 
 my mind. I was taught, and I believed it, that in 
 baptism " I was made a member of Christ, a child 
 of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. " 
 What more could I need? I regarded myself as 
 safe for eternity. Had any one asked " a reason of 
 the hope that was in me," or why I laid this flatter- 
 ing unction to my soul so confidently, I would have 
 appealed to the book and replied, " My Catechism 
 tells me so ; I was made all this * in my baptism.' ' 
 On this unscriptural dogma I was risking all my 
 future welfare. Of repentance, faith in the Lord 
 
 * This experience was compiled from Dr. Butler's writings and submitted to 
 him. Dr. Butler was born in 1818. 
 
REV. WILLIAM BUTLER, D.D. 25 1 
 
 Jesus, the new birth, or the witness of the Spirit, I 
 knew nothing and had never heard. Truly 
 
 " A form of godliness was mine, 
 The power I never knew." 
 
 But a compassionate God was preparing another 
 agency to undeceive me, to open my eyes and turn 
 me from darkness to light, that I might receive for- 
 giveness of my sins and an inheritance among them 
 that are sanctified, all through the instrumentality 
 of a blessed woman of God, the wife of one of her 
 majesty's judges (Sydney Mary Crampton), who had 
 recently moved into our neighborhood. 
 
 She walked out every morning and distributed 
 tracts and talked to people about religion. I found 
 myself sincerely hoping that I should not fall into 
 her hands or be talked to by her. I did not wish 
 to be disturbed as to my religious condition. On 
 inquiring as to her appearance, she was represented 
 to me as tall, refined, and delicate looking. It was 
 singular how uncomfortable I became by the pres- 
 ence of this u Methodist " in our neighborhood, and 
 how much I began to fear that I might come in 
 contact with her, and that she might talk to me 
 about my religious state. 
 
 It was only a few mornings after hearing of the 
 lady that I rose earlier than usual to attend to some 
 business, and, going along the road near St. Valori, 
 I saw her coming toward me attended by her maid. 
 
252 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 From the description I felt assured this must be 
 the lady ! I at once slackened my pace in order to 
 get time to decide what I should do to escape. The 
 wall on either side of the road was some six feet 
 high and I could not jump over. It looked cowardly 
 to turn back and escape by walking away from her, 
 so I concluded to take the alternative which re- 
 mained, that, as the sidewalk was fully five feet wide, 
 I would, as we approached each other, step to the 
 very outside limit and .leave her a wide berth to 
 pass on. Quickening my steps to carry out my pur- 
 pose, as I came near I saw, to my confusion, that she 
 did not intend to move off to the inside, but was 
 going to stop in the center of the path and so gently 
 bar my way ! She afterward told me that before I 
 reached her the Spirit of God seemed to say to her 
 heart, " Speak to this young man." So, as she 
 stopped, I had no alternative but to do the same, 
 and then I ventured to lift my eyes and look at her. 
 How amazed I was, and ashamed as well, that I 
 should have imagined her — u this Methodist " — 
 something of a horror, to be afraid of on meeting ! 
 How sweet her face was, and such a smile ! She 
 could not but see that I was alarmed at her pres- 
 ence and that I looked rather wild. But she spoke 
 and said in such a gentle way, and in tones that I 
 shall never forget, u Good-morning, young man ; 
 may I say a few words to you?" My trepidation 
 at once calmed down, and I looked again at that 
 
REV. WILLIAM BUTLER, D.D. 253 
 
 saintly face and answered, "Yes, madam, you may 
 say whatever you wish." She saw that she had 
 gained her first point, and stepped nearer till she 
 could touch my sleeve with that white hand, so thin 
 and wasted by the incipient consumption which four 
 years after was to lay her in the grave. 
 
 She then said, " I want to ask you this question : 
 Do you pray ? " Had she asked me, " Do you say 
 your prayers? " I could have answered with great 
 confidence. But she did not say or mean that, 
 though herself an Episcopalian and well acquainted 
 with the prayer-book. I had never offered an ex- 
 tempore prayer — could not have done it. My heart 
 had not learned to utter its own cry to God accord- 
 ing to its own feelings. I had only repeated the 
 language of other people, whether it fully expressed 
 my own condition or not. It was wonderful what 
 clearness there was in her question ; how the Spirit 
 of God carried her meaning into my mind. So, 
 though in such darkness, I saw at once what she 
 meant when she asked me if I prayed. Being too 
 manly to tell a falsehood I promptly answered, " No, 
 madam, I do not." She drew a deep sigh and then 
 said, " Well, if you don't pray, what is to become of* 
 your soul? " Up to that hour I had supposed that 
 my soul was all right, that I was safe for eternity. 
 But the question went through my heart and woke 
 me up to a suspicion, which immediately became a 
 consciousness, that I was unsaved ; that my soul was 
 
254 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 in danger ! ' Her tender words had " opened my 
 eyes." My ecclesiastical salvation vanished as in a 
 moment, and I saw myself in the sight of God a 
 sinner, guilty and polluted. I hung my head and 
 was silent. 
 
 She saw how God was helping her, and touched 
 my arm again. How glad I am that she touched 
 me! She said, " Now listen to me ! " She talked, 
 perhaps, less than fifteen minutes. When she ceased 
 I had learned more about true religion than I had 
 gained from all the sermons I had ever heard. The 
 Holy Spirit sealed every word upon my conscience, 
 and I became so submissive to the guidance of God 
 through her that it seemed as though a thread 
 would have led me anywhere to seek salvation. She 
 closed the interview earnestly exhorting me not to 
 lose an hour in carrying out my resolution to seek 
 the Lord, and made me promise to call upon her 
 that evening, and then used these words : " Young 
 man, God is not only able and willing to save your 
 soul, but he is also willing to make you the means 
 of the salvation of other people. " These words 
 startled me. Realizing, as I then did, the depth of 
 my own unworthiness, I could not imagine that God 
 would add personal usefulness in my case to per- 
 sonal salvation. 
 
 We parted, but I was so determined to lose no 
 time in seeking the Lord that I let the worldly bus- 
 iness go for that morning, and walked on to where 
 
REV. WILLIAM BUTLER, D.D. 255 
 
 I knew there was a gate leading into the field, and 
 there I entered, and behind that wall dropped on 
 my knees and pleaded with God for mercy. The 
 blessed Spirit was helping me and I found words to 
 express myself. Then and there I gave myself to 
 Christ as Saviour and Lord forever, and implored 
 God to make me such a Christian as this lady had 
 taught me I must become in order to be saved. 
 That evening I called upon her, and she further in- 
 structed and prayed with. me. She also put into 
 my hands the same precious books that had helped 
 herself — Carvosso's Life and Mrs. Rogers's Life — 
 telling me to read them daily along with my Bible, 
 and keep on praying earnestly until I felt that the 
 Lord had converted my soul. 
 
 But I had a hard conflict, and a long time elapsed 
 ere I entered into the light and joy of salvation. 
 My dear friend was my only helper. No Meth- 
 odistic or other evangelical ministry w r as within my 
 reach, nor any of our precious means of grace. I 
 was " in a dry and thirsty land." The wicked scoffed 
 at me, and some, from whom better things might 
 have been expected, pointed the finger of scorn at 
 " this new Methodist." But I held on, though with- 
 out any comfort or joy, resolved not to give up 
 seeking, let them persecute as they might. My 
 convictions of sin were very keen. Often I could 
 neither eat nor drink, nor even sleep. Sometimes I 
 was so distressed that I would rise at midnight and 
 
256 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 walk the fields, and look up at the stars, and cry out 
 to God above them to come down to my help and 
 grant me mercy. Satan was doing all he could to 
 buffet and discourage me, so that frequently I 
 almost despaired of salvation. 
 
 Winter arrived and my friend returned to the city 
 of Dublin, and I was left alone to wrestle with all 
 these difficulties. But after a while I followed her 
 to the city, and on the ensuing Sabbath morning I 
 accompanied her to the Methodist chapel, the first 
 non-conformist service I had ever attended. How 
 simple and apostolic it all appeared ! The hearty 
 singing, the extempore prayers, the experimental 
 preaching, all delighted me. My confidence was 
 won. I felt that I had found here the very help 
 my poor discouraged soul required, and it was easy 
 to conclude at once, as I did, that these people 
 should be my people for the rest of my life. 
 
 I joined a class. I was no longer alone, without 
 sympathy or assistance, but was helped especially 
 by hearing the experience of others. 
 
 One Sunday afternoon while in a meeting for 
 Christian fellowship, held in the vestry of Hendrick 
 Street chapel, I was enabled to rest on Christ as my 
 personal Redeemer. All the burden rolled off my 
 heart and I felt and knew that I was saved ! I rose 
 to my feet and at once acknowledged what the Lord 
 had done for my soul, and those present rejoiced 
 with me. This was in 1838. 
 
REV. WILLIAM BUTLER, D.D. 257 
 
 My precious friend was made happy, and praised 
 God on my behalf. She now urged upon me the 
 duty of mental culture, and advised the keeping a 
 journal of my experience and humble efforts to do 
 good. But, above all, she counseled the devout 
 and regular perusal of the word of God, with spe- 
 cial reference to the attainment of that further state 
 of grace to which, as a child of God, I had now 
 become entitled. I was consequently led to join 
 one of those little bands which met to pray for 
 this blessing of purity of heart, that " perfect love 
 which casteth out fear." To be sanctified through- 
 out body, soul and spirit now became my intense 
 desire. I longed to be saved " to the uttermost," 
 and to know for myself what it was to a w r alk in the 
 light, as he is in the light," and experience that 
 4t the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from 
 all sin." I did not trouble myself about definitions of 
 the doctrine, the experience of which I was seeking, 
 no more than I did a few w r eeks before, when God 
 granted me the blessing of justification. I simply 
 accepted the words above quoted in their manifest 
 meaning, and entreated the Holy Spirit to grant me, 
 in his own way and manner, what they implied. 
 Mr. Wesley's sermon on " The Repentance of 
 Believers," and his " Plain Account of Christian 
 Perfection," and also Mr. Fletcher's treatise, greatly 
 helped me ; so that I had an intelligent apprehen- 
 sion of what I required and what the word of God 
 17 
 
258 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 offered to my hope. With all sincerity and strong 
 desire I sought it daily ; I might say, hourly. At 
 one of our little meetings a peculiar spirit of ear- 
 nestness for the blessing sought became manifest. 
 We were kneeling round the center-table in the 
 parlor, and one after the other prayed, and some one 
 suggested that we should sing, as we knelt, and with 
 all the faith we had, these two verses : 
 
 " O that it now from heaven might fall, 
 
 And all my sins consume ! 
 Come, Holy Ghost, for thee I call ; 
 
 Spirit of burning, come ! 
 
 " Refining fire, go through my heart ; 
 
 Illuminate my soul ; 
 Scatter thy life through every part, 
 
 And sanctify the whole." 
 
 As the singing closed all became conscious of the 
 surrounding presence of the holy Sanctifier whom 
 we had invoked. I can describe my own feelings 
 very imperfectly, for this was something beyond 
 what I had ever known before. It seemed to be 
 light and life and love combined so sweetly, and in 
 such an indescribable manner, resulting in 
 
 " The speechless awe that dares not move 
 And all the silent heaven of love." 
 
 Christ had become, beyond all former experience, 
 every thing to me, while I seemed to sink at his 
 blessed feet, " lost in astonishment and love." Those, 
 
REV. WILLIAM BUTLER, D,D. 259 
 
 in any denomination, who have sought and found 
 this grace will understand what I am trying to nar- 
 rate better than I am able to describe it. 
 
 The effect upon me was clear. I had henceforth 
 more delight in devotion, closer intimacy with God, 
 greater stability of heart and character, and more 
 deadness to the world. I was conscious of an in- 
 crease of calmly fervent zeal to lay out my life to do 
 any thing that my blessed Master might require of 
 me. Perfect peace — " the peace of God that passeth 
 all understanding " — kept my heart and mind from 
 day to day. I was free from excitement, from fluct- 
 uation, and from all fear, resting sweetly in the calm 
 sunshine of the New Testament salvation, and liv- 
 ing " a life of faith in the Son of God," who, I knew, 
 loved me and had given himself for me. 
 
 " O, days of heaven, 
 
 And nights of equal praise ! " 
 
 WILLIAM BUTLER. 
 
260 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 ETHEL PERKINS. 
 
 (METHODIST,) 
 
 [The following experience of a little girl, 12 years old, was written by herself 
 on the request of her friend, the editor, and no one was permitted to make any 
 suggestions to her as regards the punctuation, the choice or the spelling of words, 
 the order of thought, or the forms of expression. She did not know what the 
 experience was wanted for. The experience is given just as she wrote it. — S.O.C] 
 
 T WAS born June 24 1875. I think my christian 
 £> experience began when I joined the Presby- 
 terian church in Fredonia New York. 
 
 I thought that I wanted to be good. So I tried 
 but trying did not seem to do any good ; I kept 
 trying and breaking down and then making a new 
 resolution and trying again. I asked Jesus to help 
 me but I did not expect him to or look for his help. 
 Sometimes I would give up and then I would think 
 that I would try once more. So it went on. 
 
 I joined the church and yet was not sure that I 
 was saved. I prayed Jesus to forgive my sins but I 
 did not understand that I needed to be forgiven 
 and saved. 
 
 It did not change while we staid in Fredonia 
 which was about a year and a half. 
 
 We went to Leavenworth and it went on just the 
 same. We were in Leavenworth four or five 
 
ETHEL PERKINS. 261 
 
 months before we came down here. We arrived 
 here the 15th of August. A Methodist preacher 
 came here the first part of October (1886) whose 
 name was Mr. Shiras. The week after Brother 
 Shiras came here we had special meetings every 
 evening and at the first meeting we had I saw my 
 need of a Savior. That night as I lay in the bed 
 thinking and praying I heard a voice as plain as I 
 ever heard any one speak saying " Thy sins are 
 forgiven thee.'' I think I must have felt a great 
 deal happier than the people were in the olden 
 times when Jesus healed them. After that I some- 
 times spoke crossly and impatiently and did some 
 things that were not right. I thought at first that 
 it could not be that I was saved but I was so sure 
 that Jesus had forgiven me that I could not think 
 that long, but I had to keep going to Jesus to be 
 forgiven. 
 
 I heard Brother Shiras talk about the blessing of 
 holiness and I wanted that for I did want to live so 
 that I would not have to keep going to Jesus to be 
 forgiven. 
 
 I did not want it at first enough to ask anyone 
 how to get it. I waited till I could not wait any 
 longer and then I asked Brother Shiras how to get 
 it and he told me plainly so that I could understand. 
 I went away trusting Jesus to so fill me with his 
 love that I would not want to do anything wrong. 
 Next morning when I woke I was full, heaped up 
 
262 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 and brimming over with love and happiness. I 
 
 knew that Jesus was in my heart and that he would 
 
 keep watch and if any kind of evil should look in he 
 
 would be sure to see it and tell me about it. I was 
 
 so happy Oh so very happy. About two weeks 
 
 after one morning the joy was gone but I trusted 
 
 Jesus and three days after this the joy came back. 
 
 The peace and love had not been gone at all. 
 
 I did not speak in the meetings and the last 
 
 meeting we had I did not speak in and the morning 
 
 after I felt all my peace and joy was gone and I 
 
 asked Jesus to show me what was the matter and 
 
 that morning the chapter read was the fourteenth 
 
 of St Mark, and as Brother Shiras read those words 
 
 all the joy and peace came back. 
 
 ETHEL PERKINS. 
 Simon a, Fla., June 26, 1887. 
 
BISHOP C. D. FOSS, LL.D. 263 
 
 VI. 
 
 BISHOP C. D. FOSS, LL.D. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 MY EXPERIENCE IN SICKNESS. 
 
 , f*|N the first anniversary of an injury which seemed 
 T slight, but proved very serious, I feel moved to 
 offer special thanksgiving to Him " in whose hand 
 my breath is.'' " What shall I render unto the Lord 
 for all his benefits? " I can at least'swell the chorus 
 of his praise by the addition of one unworthy note. 
 The first Sabbath in February, 1882, I spent in a 
 prairie village, to which I had volunteered to go in 
 the hope of being a peace-maker between the 
 factions of a discordant church. After preaching 
 on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, holding 
 a love-feast, administering the Lord's Supper, and 
 addressing the Sunday-school, while I was walking 
 rapidly toward the place for the evening service, 
 within fifty feet of the door a misstep gave my foot 
 a fearful wrench and (as was not known until three 
 months later) broke the smaller bone of the leg. 
 After a few minutes of excruciating pain I managed 
 to hobble into the hall, and, sitting in a chair, 
 preached on personal religious experience — a sub- 
 
264 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 ject on which I am better informed now than I was 
 then. 
 
 On February 5 my health seemed perfect, as it 
 had almost always been. For twenty-seven years 
 no sickness had kept me in my bed a single day. 
 Then came ten weeks of failing strength, alarming 
 symptoms in my foot, the slow and painfully reluc- 
 tant surrender of one after another of my Confer- 
 ences and other appointments for work ; then 
 typhoid fever, seventy-five days in my room (include 
 ing a month of oblivion) ; then the slow, O how 
 slow ! creeping back from the gates of the grave. 
 
 I had always preached a pretty high doctrine of 
 providential and gracious help, of resignation and of 
 joyful acquiescence in the will of God ; too high, some 
 of my friends thought. I was sometimes told that 
 experience would very likely moderate my state- 
 ments on these subjects. Now I know what I then 
 believed. The teaching was true. I have been 
 promoted into a higher class in the school of Christ, 
 the sufferer's, and I have no fault to find with the 
 great Teacher. 
 
 One of the delightful experiences of my sickness 
 (not creditable to me as being a surprise) was that 
 in every strait I always found Jesus on the spot 
 ahead of me. I never had to wait for him nor look 
 around for him. Such assurances as these kept 
 chiming in my soul like silver bells : " Even there 
 shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall 
 
BISHOP C. D. FOSS, LL.D. 265 
 
 hold me," " A very present help in trouble/' " Be- 
 fore they call I will answer," " Lo, I am with you 
 alway." At no time did I have to struggle for com- 
 fort of mind or for any thing else. Every thing was 
 ready at my hand, more than I would have dared to 
 ask. When I was slipping downward little by little 
 toward the grave, sickness and death seemed to me 
 the easiest and most natural things in the world; 
 but when the outlook changed, and convalescence 
 began, this life looked magnificent. I would not 
 have changed places with Gabriel ; to be able to 
 lay hold of God's work again with both hands 
 would make earth a heaven. 
 
 When, after long confinement, the fever smote 
 me, and I thought it probable that the beginning 
 of the end had come, I was taken "up into a 
 mountain apart," and found my Tabor. A certain 
 Wednesday was my diamond of days, and its splen- 
 dor was followed by the serener glory of other days 
 scarcely less memorable. I was filled and thrilled 
 with an altogether indescribable sense of the absolute 
 verity of the great Christian beliefs and of the mag- 
 nificent privilege of having any place in the king- 
 dom of God. It was superb to be, do, suffer any 
 thing to please him. The dying words of Dr. Rob- 
 erts, the well-known Baltimore local preacher, came 
 often to my lips. When an anxious friend who 
 feared that he would quickly exhaust his failing 
 strength said to him, "Don't shout so; whisper 
 
266 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 what you wish to say," he answered, " Let angels 
 whisper ; redeemed men must shout." Many a time 
 the walls of my chamber echoed those words in no 
 whispered tone. And yet my friends know that my 
 religious experience, while sometimes highly emo- 
 tional, is rarely demonstrative. 
 
 A month later, at another very critical stage of my 
 illness, I was led most delightfully in a very different 
 path. Again and again it occurred to me what a 
 happy outcome of my sickness it would be if the 
 Saviour should come into my room in visible form 
 and instantly heal me. I knew if he should come 
 and say, " What wilt thou ?" my quick reply would 
 be, " Lord make me perfectly whole and perfectly 
 holy." I did not pray for such a miracle, nor wish 
 it ; but day after day in my quiet afternoon hours 
 the inspiring thought kept coming, " How grand 
 a testimony it would be if, in these skeptical times, I 
 might go forth proclaiming that in a single moment 
 the audible word of the visible Christ had perfectly 
 cured me of a severe sprain a broken bone, typhoid 
 fever, and prostrating weakness; and if my testi- 
 mony should be so confirmed by that of physicians 
 and friends as to be lifted above the possibility of 
 scientific doubt ! " At length, when this thought 
 had grown so familiar that the realization of it 
 would hardly have surprised me, there came in place 
 of it a strong impression (like an audible voice, 
 and yet there was no voice), sealing on my mind as 
 
BISHOP C. D. FOSS, LL.D. 267 
 
 never before the words, " Thomas, because thou hast 
 seen me thou hast believed. Blessed [I have always 
 thought that means more blessed] are they that 
 have not seen and yet have believed. " The de- 
 licious fancy of a possible miracle gave place to the 
 solid fact of the greater blessedness of that dispen- 
 sation of providence and grace which can transform 
 and glorify all suffering; and this was a wondrous 
 sweetener of my long trial. 
 
 " O that men would praise the Lord for his good- 
 ness, and for his wonderful works to the children of 
 
 men!" 
 
 C. D. FOSS. 
 
 Minneapolis, Minn., Feb. 5, 1883. 
 
268 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 VII. 
 
 DWIGHT L. MOODY.* 
 
 (CONGREGATIONAL.) 
 
 MT the summer school for Bible study, held at 
 / Mount Hermon, Moody addressed the boys' 
 class and answered questions. 
 
 The subject of " Induement of Power " was 
 before the class ; the necessity of it for service was 
 urged. Moody said, " No need to stop your work 
 in order to wait for this induement of power, but 
 do not be satisfied until you get it. 
 
 " Let it be the cry of your heart day and night. 
 . . . Young men, you will get this blessing when 
 you seek it above all else. There will be no 
 trouble about knowing when you have got it. 
 
 " We should not have to wait long for this bap- 
 tism of the Spirit if we did not have to come to 
 the end of ourselves. This sometimes is a long 
 road. 
 
 " If God were to indue us with power when we 
 were full of conceit we should become vain as pea- 
 cocks, and there would be no living near us." Mr. 
 Moody then told his experience — a thing which he 
 is not greatly given to do. 
 
 * Taken from The Christian^ London, England, August 26, 1886. 
 
DWIGHT L. MOODY. 269 
 
 "This blessing came upon me," he said, "suddenly, 
 like a flash of lightning. For months I had been 
 hungering and thirsting for power in service. I had 
 come to that point that I think I would have died 
 if I had not got it. I remember I was walking the 
 streets of New York. I had no more heart in the 
 business I was about than if I had not belonged to 
 this world at all. Right there, on the street, the 
 power of God seemed to come upon me so won- 
 derfully that I had to ask God to stay his hand. I 
 was filled with a sense of God's goodness, and felt 
 as though I could take the whole world to my 
 heart. I took the old sermon that I had preached 
 before without any power ; it was the same old 
 truth, but there was a new power. Many were 
 impressed and converted. This happened years 
 after I was converted myself. 
 
 " It was in the fall of 187 1. I had been very anx- 
 ious to have a large Sunday-school and a large con- 
 gregation, but there were few conversions. I 
 remember I used to take a pride in having the 
 largest congregation in Chicago on a Sunday night. 
 Two godly women used to come and hear me. 
 One of them came to me one night after I had 
 preached very satisfactorily, as I thought. I 
 fancied she was going to congratulate me on my 
 success ; but she said, ' We are praying for you/ 
 I wondered if I had made some blunder, that they 
 talked in that way. 
 
2/0 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 "Next Sunday night they were there again, evi- 
 dently in prayer while I was preaching. One of 
 them said, ' We are still praying for you/ I could 
 not understand it, and said, i Praying for me ! Why 
 don't you pray for the people ? I am all right/ 
 i Ah ' they said, ' you are not all right ; you 
 have not got power ; there is something lacking, 
 but God can qualify you/ I did not like it at first, 
 but I got to thinking it over, and after a little time 
 I began to feel a desire to have what they were 
 praying for. 
 
 " They continued to pray for me, and the result 
 was that at the end of three months God sent this 
 blessing on me. I want to tell you this : I would 
 not for the whole world go back to where I was 
 before 1871. Since then I have never lost the 
 assurance that I am walking in communion with 
 God, and I have a joy in his service that sustains 
 me and makes it easy work. I believe I was an 
 older man then than I am now ; I have been grow- 
 ing younger ever since. I used to be very tired 
 when preaching three times a week; now I can 
 preach five times a day and never get tired at all. 
 I have done three times the work I did before, and 
 it gets better and better every year. It is so easy 
 to do a thing when love prompts you. It would be 
 better, it seems to me, to go and break stone than 
 to take to preaching in a professional spirit/' 
 
PROF. T. C. UPHAM, D.D. 2? I 
 
 VIII. 
 
 PROF. T. C. UPHAM, D.D.* 
 
 (CONGREGATION ALIST. ) 
 
 TN the spring of 1 815, in connection with a remark- 
 et) able revival which took place in Dartmouth Col- 
 > lege, I suppose that I experienced religion. About 
 three years afterward I made a profession of re- 
 ligion in the Congregational Church. Accordingly, 
 I have been a public professor of religion ever since 
 that time. During the greater part of that long 
 period I believe that I have striven earnestly for 
 high religious attainments. For various reasons^ 
 however, and particularly the discouraging influence 
 of the prevalent doctrine that personal sanctification 
 cannot fully take place till death, I did not per- 
 manently attain the object of my desires. Some- 
 times, it is true, I advanced much, and then again 
 was thrown back, living what may be called the 
 common Christian life of sinning and repenting, of 
 alternate walking with God and devotedness to the 
 world. This method of living was highly unsatis- 
 factory to me, as it has often been to others. It 
 seemed exceedingly dangerous to risk my soul in 
 
 * From Pioneer Experiences. 
 
272 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 eternity in such a state as this. In this state of 
 mind I was led, early in the summer of 1839, by a 
 series of special providences, which it is here un- 
 necessary to detail, "to examine the subject of 
 personal holiness as a matter of personal realization. 
 I examined the subject, as I thought, prayerfully, 
 candidly, and faithfully — looking at the various 
 objections as well as the multiplied evidences — and 
 came, ultimately, to the undoubting conclusion that 
 God required me to be holy, that he had made 
 provision for it, and that it was both my duty and 
 privilege to be so. The establishment of my belief 
 in this great doctrine was followed by a number of 
 pleasing and important results. 
 
 1. As soon as I had become established in the 
 belief of present holiness I felt a great increase of 
 obligation to be holy. Many secret excuses for sin, 
 which had formerly paralyzed my efforts, now lost 
 their power. The logic in the case was very simple. 
 God requires me to be holy now, and as he can re- 
 quire nothing unreasonable I am under obligation 
 to be holy now. I could not turn to the right hand 
 nor to the left. I knew instinctively and most 
 certainly that God did not and could not require 
 impossibilities. I considered his command as in- 
 volving an implied promise to help me to fulfill it. I 
 felt, moreover, that every moment's delay was adding 
 transgression to transgression, and was exceedingly 
 offensive in the sight of God. Accordingly, within a 
 
PROF. T. C. UPHAM, D.D. 273 
 
 very few days after rejecting the common doctrine 
 that sanctification is fully attainable only in the 
 article of death, and receiving the doctrine of the 
 possibility and duty of present holiness, I conse- 
 crated myself to God, body and spirit, deliberately, 
 voluntarily, and forever. I had communicated my 
 purpose to no human being. There was nothing 
 said ; nothing written. It was a simple volition ; a 
 calm and unchangeable resolution of mind ; a pur- 
 pose silently but irrevocably made, and such as any 
 Christian is capable of making. But, simple as it 
 was, I regard it as a crisis in my moral being which 
 has, perhaps, affected my eternal destiny. I acknowl- 
 edge that I took this important step in comparative 
 darkness— that is to say, clouds were round about 
 me, and I went by faith rather than by sight ; but 
 I had an unwavering confidence in God, that he 
 would in his own time and way carry me through 
 and give me the victory. This important decision 
 was made in the summer of 1839, an< ^ about the 
 middle of July. Two almost immediate and marked 
 results followed this act of consecration. The one 
 was an immediate removal of that sense of condem- 
 nation which had followed me for many years and 
 had filled my mind with sorrow. The other result, 
 which also almost immediately followed, was a great 
 increased value and love of the Bible. It required 
 no great effort of reasoning to perceive that, in doing 
 
 the whole will of God, which had become the fixed 
 
 18 
 
274 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 purpose of my life, I must take the Bible for my 
 guide. As I opened and read its pages from day to 
 day, its great truths disclosed themselves to my 
 mind with an impressiveness and beauty unknown 
 before. And this result, independently of the aid 
 implied in the biblical promise that those who do 
 the will of God shall understand his communication, 
 was what might have naturally and reasonably been 
 expected. Before this time, reading every where 
 my own condemnation, I had insensibly but volun- 
 tarily closed my eyes to the doctrine of present 
 holiness which shines forth so brightly and contin- 
 ually from the sacred pages. But now I found holi- 
 ness every where, and I felt that I began to love it. 
 2. I now proceed to mention some other changes 
 of mind which I soon passed through. In Decem- 
 ber of this year, 1839, * visited the city of New 
 York on business which brought me into commu- 
 nication with certain persons who belonged to the 
 Methodist denomination. I was providentially led 
 to form an acquaintance with other pious Methodists, 
 and was exceedingly happy in attending a number of 
 meetings which had exclusive reference to the doc- 
 trine of holiness and to personal holy experience. 
 In these meetings I took the liberty, although com- 
 paratively a stranger, to profess myself a believer in 
 the doctrine of holiness and a seeker after it. And 
 I found myself greatly encouraged and aided by the 
 judicious remarks, the prayers and the sympathies 
 
PROF. T. C. UPHAM, D.D. 275 
 
 of a number of beloved Christian friends. As I 
 now perceive, the great difficulty at this time in the 
 way of my victorious progress was my ignorance of 
 the important principle that sanctification, as well as 
 justification, is by faith. By consecrating myself to 
 God I had put myself into a favorable condition to 
 exercise faith ; but I had never understood and felt 
 the imperative necessity of this exercise, namely of 
 faith as a sanctifying instrumentality. My Meth- 
 odist friends, to whom this view was familiar, gave 
 me, in the spirit of Christian kindness, much in- 
 struction and assistance here, for which I desire to 
 be grateful to them. I found that I must give up 
 the system, already too long cherished, of walking 
 by signs and manifestations and sensible experi- 
 ences, and must commit every thing, in light and in 
 darkness, in joy and in sorrow, into the hands of 
 God. Realizing, accordingly, that I must have 
 greater faith in God as the fulfiller of his promises 
 and as the pledged and everlasting portion of those 
 who put their trust in him, and aided by the kind- 
 ness and supplications of Christian friends, I in some 
 degree (and perhaps I may say in a very consider- 
 able degree) gained the victory. I shall ever rec- 
 ollect the time. It was early on Friday morning, 
 the 27th of December. The evening previous had 
 been spent in deeply interesting conversation and 
 in prayer on the subject of holiness, and with par- 
 ticular reference to myself. Soon after I awoke in 
 
2j6 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 the morning I found that my mind, without having 
 experienced any very remarkable manifestations or 
 ecstasies, had, nevertheless, undergone a great moral 
 revolution. I was removed from the condition of a 
 servant and adopted into that of a son. I believed 
 and felt, in a sense which I had never experienced 
 before, that my sins were all blotted out, were 
 wholly forgiven, and that Christ was not only the 
 Saviour of mankind in general, but my Christ, my 
 Saviour in particular, and that God was my Father. 
 As I have observed, I had no ecstasy, but great and 
 abiding peace and consolation. 
 
 3. I mark here another step in the progress of 
 this important contest. Under the influence of the 
 feelings which I have just described I consecrated 
 myself anew to God in a more specific and solemn 
 manner. I now made a written record of .my con- 
 secration, which I had not done before. But, while 
 it seemed to me that I sincerely endeavored to give 
 up all, I was unable as yet, in consequence, proba- 
 bly, of some lingering remains of unbelief, or because 
 God in his wise sovereignty was pleased to try a 
 little longer the faith which he had given me, to 
 speak confidently of my sanctification. I would take 
 the liberty to say here that I do not consider con- 
 secration and sanctification the same thing. Conse- 
 cration is the incipient, the prerequisite act. It is 
 the laying of ourselves upon the altar ; but it is not 
 till God has accepted the sacrifice, and wrought 
 
PROF. T. C. UPHAM, D.D. 277 
 
 upon us by the consuming and restoring work of 
 the Holy Spirit, that we can be said to be sancti- 
 fied. It is true that the one may immediately and 
 almost simultaneously follow the other; and this 
 will be the case where faith in God is perfect. 
 But this was not the case with me. But I 
 was now, however, by the grace of God, in a 
 position where I had new strength, and could plead 
 the promise with much greater confidence than for- 
 merly. God had given me great blessings, such as 
 a new sense of forgiveness, increased love, a clear 
 evidence of adoption and worship, closer and deeper 
 communion with himself, but I felt there was some- 
 thing remaining to be experienced. 
 
 In this state of mind, not having fully attained 
 the object of my expectations and wishes, but still 
 greatly in advance of my former Christian ex- 
 perience, ajid with a fixed determination to per- 
 severe, I left the city of New York about the mid- 
 dle of January, 1840. Immediately after my arrival 
 at my residence, in the State of Maine, I united with 
 some Methodist brethren in establishing a meeting 
 similar to those which had benefited me so much 
 in New York, for the purpose of promoting personal 
 godliness, and which was designed to be open to 
 persons of all denominations of Christians. This 
 meeting was very encouraging to me and to others. 
 Nevertheless, I was not able for about two weeks to 
 profess the personal experience and realization of 
 
278 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 the great blessing of holiness as it seemed to be ex- 
 perienced and realized in others. The principal 
 difficulty, as I daily examined my heart to see how 
 the case stood between my soul and God, seemed to 
 be a consciousness, while other evils were greatly or 
 entirely removed, of the remains of selfishness. In- 
 deed, at this particular time the selfish principle, 
 or rather the principle of self-love, in its inordinate 
 and unholy exerctee, seemed to be stimulated to 
 unwonted activity. The remains of every form of 
 iaternal opposition to God appeared to be centered 
 in one point and to be prosecuted in one aspect. I do 
 not know that I was ever more troubled, during so 
 short a space of time, with feelings of this nature. I 
 do not mean to say that I was more selfish at this 
 time than ever before ; by no means. But the 
 existence and horrible nature of this state of mind 
 were more fully brought to view. I took this en- 
 couragement, however : that God was perhaps now 
 showing me, as he often does when he is about to 
 bless with entire holiness of heart, the very root of 
 evil ; and I was sincerely desirous to see it and to 
 know it, that it might be slain in his presence. The 
 good hand of the Lord was pleased to sustain my 
 faith in this sharp contest. My continual prayer to 
 God was that he would enable me to love him with 
 all my heart. I knew not fully what the nature of 
 perfect love was ; but my prayer was that this love, 
 whatever might be its nature and its inward mani- 
 
PROF. T. C. UPHAM, D.D. 279 
 
 festation, might in God's time and way be realized 
 within me. And in the answer to this prayer, when- 
 ever it should be given, I confidently foresaw the 
 termination of this internal conflict ; for selfish- 
 ness can never exist in union with perfect love. 
 
 On Sabbath evening, the 2d of February, I was 
 greatly afflicted in mind ; tossed to and fro as in a 
 tempest ; and it seemed to me that I could not 
 easily stand where I was, but must either advance 
 or retreat. But God's grace was sufficient. My 
 faith remained unshaken, and on Monday morning 
 I thought I could say with great calmness and as- 
 surance, " Thou hast given me the victory." I was 
 never able before that time to say with sincerity and 
 confidence that I loved my heavenly Father with 
 all my soul and with all my strength. But, aided 
 by divine grace, I have been enabled to use this 
 language, which involves, as I understand it, 
 the true idea of Christian perfection or holiness, 
 both then and ever since. There was no intellect- 
 ual excitement, no very marked joy, when I reached 
 this great rock of practical salvation. The soul 
 seemed to have gathered strength from the storm 
 which it had passed through on the previous night, 
 and, aided by a power from on high, it leaped for- 
 ward, as it were by a bound, to the great and de- 
 cisive mark. I was distinctly conscious when I 
 reached it. The selfish exercises which had recent- 
 ly, and, as it were, by a concentrated and spasmodic 
 
280 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 effort, troubled me so much, seemed to be at once 
 removed ; and I believed, and had reason to believe, 
 that my heart, presumptuous as it may appear to 
 some to say it, was now purified by the Holy Spirit 
 and made right with God. I was thus, if I was not 
 mistaken in my feeling, no longer an offering to the 
 world, but sanctified unto the Lord ; given to him 
 to be his, and no longer my own ; redeemed by a 
 mighty power, and filled with the blessing of " per- 
 fect love." 
 
 4. The enemy might now be said to be cast out 
 of the interior of the castle. Nevertheless, he has 
 never ceased his hostility. He has laid his snares 
 and presented his temptations. It would be pre- 
 sumption to assert postively that I had never in any 
 case, nor for any length of time, yielded to his 
 power. But I can testify abundantly to the good- 
 ness of God's grace, that he has heard the voice of 
 my prayer and in a wonderful manner preserved 
 me. Certain it is that my spiritual life has been a 
 new life. There is calm sunshine upon the soul. 
 The praise of God is continually upon my lips. 
 
 I have continually what seems to me to be the 
 witness of the Holy Spirit — that is to say, I have a 
 firm and abiding conviction that I am wholly the 
 Lord's, which does not seem to be introduced into 
 the mind by reasoning nor by any methods what- 
 ever of forced and self-made reflection, and which I 
 can ascribe only to the Spirit of God. It is a sort 
 
PROF. T. C. UPHAM, D.D. 28 1 
 
 of interior voice, which speaks silently but effectively 
 to the soul and bids me be of good cheer. At 
 times, especially on the 14th of February, 1840, I ex- 
 perienced some remarkable operations on my mind, 
 which made a profound and lasting impression. 
 Language would be but a feeble instrument in de- 
 tailing them., and I will not attempt it. Indeed, I 
 do not know but I must say with the apostle, 
 " whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot 
 tell." But in view of what I then experienced and 
 have experienced at other times I cannot help say- 
 ing with the apostle, " God hath also sealed us, and 
 given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." 
 
 I could speak of many remarkable deliverances and 
 supports in time of mental trial. God has ever been 
 with me, in time of trouble, a " faithful God." But 
 these, and many other things which have called forth 
 the deep gratitude of my heart, I am compelled to 
 omit. I cannot refrain from saying, however, that 
 almost from the very moment of my obtaining the 
 victory over those selfish feelings which have been 
 spoken of, I was distinctly conscious of a new but 
 powerful and delightful attraction toward the divine 
 mind. This, I believe, is a common form of interior 
 experience among those who have enjoyed the 
 blessing of sanctification. I perceived and felt very 
 distinctly that there was a central existence, full of 
 all glory, toward which the Spirit was tending. I 
 could realize the meaning of the Psalmist, " As the 
 
282 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my 
 soul after thee, O God. 5 ' I felt like an imprisoned 
 bird when the string is cut that bound it to the 
 earth, and which soars upward and spreads its wings 
 to the skies. So conscious have I been that inor- 
 dinate self-love has been the great cause of the 
 separation between my soul and God that the very 
 idea of self as distinct from God is almost painful to 
 me. When self is destroyed, the divine union, 
 which sanctified hearts only know, takes place. If 
 I know any thing I know most certainly that the 
 true resting place of my soul is and must be in the 
 infinite mind ; that it is not and cannot be anywhere 
 else. Perhaps no part of the Scriptures, during the 
 more recent periods of my experience, has more af- 
 fected me than the prayer of the Saviour for his di- 
 ciples " That they all may be one ; as thou, Father, 
 art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one 
 in us." It is difficult for me to conceive of any 
 heaven but God's presence ; of any hell but his 
 absence. I realize that the cup of my happiness is 
 full, whatever may be my personal trials and sor 
 rows, whenever and wherever my heavenly Father 
 is glorified in me. Accordingly it is my earnest 
 and constant prayer that my will may be wholly and 
 forever lost in the will of God, and that I may 
 never know self any more except as the instrument 
 of divine glory. 
 
REV. ALFRED COOKMAN. 283 
 
 IX. 
 
 REV. ALFRED COOKMAN.* 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 T WAS born January 4, 1828. When just turned 
 JD ten years of age I realized clearly and satis- 
 factorily the converting grace of God. I shall 
 never forget the 12th of February, 1838, the birth- 
 day of my eternal life. Connecting myself imme- 
 diately with the church of my fathers I laid down 
 a rule always to attend my class-meeting. To a 
 rigid observance of this rule during my boyhood 
 and youth I gratefully attribute the fact that I 
 have always retained my place in the Church of 
 God. 
 
 At the age of eighteen I took up the silver 
 trumpet that had fallen from the hand of my faith- 
 ful father, and began to preach, in my humble way, 
 the everlasting Gospel. Quitting, about this time, 
 one of the happiest of homes to enter the itinerant 
 work, my excellent mother remarked, just upon the 
 threshold of my departure, " My son, if you would 
 be supremely happy, or extensively useful in your 
 ministry, you must be an entirely sanctified servant 
 
 * From Pioneer Experiences, 
 
284 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 of Jesus." It was a cursory suggestion, perhaps 
 forgotten almost as soon as expressed ; neverthe- 
 less, applied by the Divine Spirit, it made the pro- 
 foundest impression upon my mind and heart. 
 
 My mother's passing but pointed remark fol- 
 lowed me like a good angel as I moved to and fro 
 in my first sphere' of itinerant duty, namely, Attle- 
 borough Circuit, Philadephia Conference. Fre- 
 quently I felt that I should yield myself to God and 
 pray for the grace of entire sanctification ; but then 
 the experience would lift itself in my view as a 
 mountain of glory, and I would say, " It is not for 
 me. I could not possibly scale that shining sum- 
 mit, and, if I might, my besetments and trials are 
 such I could not successfully maintain so lofty a 
 position." 
 
 While thus exercised in mind, Bishop Hamline, 
 accompanied by his devoted and useful wife, came 
 to Newtown, one of the principal appointments on 
 the circuit, that he might dedicate a neat church 
 which we had been erecting for the worship of 
 God. Remaining about a week, he not only 
 preached again and again, and always with the 
 unction of the Holy One, but took occasion to con- 
 verse with me pointedly respecting my religious 
 experience. His gentle and yet dignified bearing, 
 devotional spirit, beautiful Christian example, di- 
 vinely-illuminated face, apostolic labors, and fatherly 
 counsels, made the profoundest impression on my 
 
REV. ALFRED COOKMAN. 285 
 
 mind and heart. I heard him as one sent from 
 God ; and certainly he was. 
 
 One week-day afternoon, after a most delightful 
 discourse, he urged us to seize the opportunity 
 and do what we had often desired, resolved, and 
 promised to do ; namely, as believers, yield our- 
 selves to God as those who were alive from the 
 dead, and from that hour trust constantly in Jesus 
 as our Saviour from all sin. I said, u I will ; with 
 the help of the Almighty Spirit, I will." Kneeling 
 by myself I brought an entire consecration to the 
 altar — that is, Christ. 
 
 But some one will say, " Had you not dedicated 
 yourself to God at the time of your conversion ? " 
 I answer, " Yes ; but with this difference ; then I 
 brought to the Lord Jesus powers dead in tres- 
 passes and sins; now I brought powers permeated 
 with the new life of regeneration. I presented 
 myself * a living sacrifice/ Then I gave myself 
 away; but now, with the increased illumination 
 of the Spirit, I felt that my surrender was more 
 intelligent, specific and careful — it was my hands, 
 my feet, my senses, my attributes of mind and 
 heart, my hours, my energies, my reputation, my 
 kindred, my worldly substance, my every thing. 
 Then I was anxious respecting pardon ; but now 
 my desire and faith compassed something more ; 
 I wanted the conscious presence of the Sanctifier in 
 my heart." 
 
286 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 Carefully consecrating every thing, I covenanted 
 with my own heart and with my heavenly Father 
 that this entire but unworthy offering should 
 remain upon the altar, and that henceforth I would 
 please God by believing that the altar (Christ) 
 sanctifieth the gift. Do you ask what was the 
 immediate effect? I answer, peace — a broad, deep, 
 full, satisfying, and sacred peace. This proceeded 
 not only from the testimony of a good conscience 
 before God, but likewise from the presence and 
 operation of the Spirit in my heart. Still I could 
 not say that I was entirely sanctified, except as I 
 had sanctified or set apart myself unto God. 
 
 The following day, finding Bishop and Mrs. 
 Hamline, I ventured to tell them of my consecra- 
 tion and faith in Jesus, and in the confession 
 realized increasing light and strength. A little 
 while after it was proposed by Mrs. Hamline that 
 we spend a little season in prayer. Prostrated 
 before God, one and another prayed, and while 
 thus engaged God for Christ's sake gave me the 
 Holy Spirit as I had never received it before, so 
 that I was constrained to conclude, and confess, 
 
 " Tis done ! Thou dost this moment save, 
 
 With full salvation bless ; 
 Redemption through thy blood I have, 
 
 And spotless love and peace." 
 
 The great work of sanctification that I had so 
 often prayed and hoped for was wrought in me — 
 
REV. ALFRED COOKMAN. 287 
 
 even in me. I could not doubt it. The evidence 
 in my case was as direct and indubitable as the 
 witness of sonship received at the time of my 
 adoption into the family of heaven. O it was 
 glorious, divinely glorious ! 
 
 Need I say that the experience of sanctification 
 inaugurated a new epoch in my religious life? O, 
 what blessed rest in Jesus ! what an abiding expe- 
 rience of purity through the blood of the Lamb ! 
 what a conscious union and constant communion 
 with God ! what increased power to do or suffer 
 the will of my Father in heaven ! what delight in 
 the Master's service ! what fear to grieve the 
 infinitely holy Spirit ! what love for, and desire to 
 be with, the entirely sanctified ! what joy in relig- 
 ious conversation ! what confidence in prayer ! 
 what illumination in the perusal of the sacred word ! 
 what increased unction in the performance of 
 public duties ! 
 
 O, that I could conclude just here these allu- 
 sions to personal experience with the simple adden- 
 dum that my life to the present has answered to 
 the description of " endless progression, steadied 
 by endless peace !" Fidelity to truth, however, 
 with a solicitude that others may profit by my 
 errors, constrains me to add another page of per- 
 sonal testimony. 
 
 Have you never known a sky full of sunshine, 
 the promise of a beautiful day, subsequently 
 
288 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 obscured by lowering clouds ? Have you never 
 known a jewel of incalculable value to its owner 
 lost through culpable carelessness ? Alas ! that so 
 bright a morning in my spiritual history should not 
 have shone more and more unto the perfect day ; 
 that I should under any circumstances have care- 
 lessly parted with this pearl of personal experience. 
 
 Eight weeks transpired — weeks of light, strength, 
 love, and blessing. Conference came on. I found 
 myself in the midst of beloved brethren. Forget- 
 ting how easily the infinitely holy Spirit might be 
 grieved, I allowed myself to drift into the spirit of 
 the hour, and after an indulgence in foolish joking 
 and story-telling realized that I had suffered 
 serious loss. To my next field of labor I pro- 
 ceeded with consciously-diminished spiritual power. 
 
 Perhaps to satisfy my conscience I began to 
 favor the arguments of those who insisted that 
 sanctification as a work of the Holy Spirit could 
 not involve an experience distinct from regenera- 
 tion. O, how many precious years I wasted in 
 quibbling and debating respecting theological dif- 
 ferences, not seeing that I was antagonizing a doc- 
 trine that must be " spiritually discerned, " and the 
 tendency of which is manifestly to bring people 
 nearer to God ! 
 
 Meanwhile I had foolishly fallen into the habit 
 of using tobacco — an indulgence which, besides the 
 palatable gratification, seemed to minister both to 
 
REV. ALFRED COOKMAN. 289 
 
 my nervous and my social nature. Years elapsed. 
 When I would confront the obligation of entire con- 
 secration the sacrifice of my foolish habit would 
 be presented as a test of obedience. I would con- 
 sent. Light, strength, and blessing were the 
 result. Afterward temptation would be presented. 
 I would listen to suggestions like these, " This 
 is one of the good things of God." " Your relig- 
 ion does not require a course of asceticism." "This 
 indulgence is not specially forbidden on the New 
 Testament page." " Some good people whom you 
 know are addicted to this practice." Thus seek- 
 ing to quiet an uneasy conscience I would drift 
 back into the old habit again. After awhile I 
 began to see that the indulgence at best was doubt- 
 ful for me, and that I was giving my carnality 
 rather than my Christian experience the benefit of 
 the doubt. It could not really harm me to give it 
 up, while to persist in the practice was costing me 
 too much in my religious enjoyments. 
 
 I found that, after all my objections to sanctifi- 
 cation as a distinct work of grace, there was, 
 nevertheless, a conscious lack in my own religious 
 experience. It was not strong, round, full, or 
 abiding. I frequently asked myself, " What is that 
 I need and desire in comparison with what I have 
 and profess ? " I looked at the three steps insisted 
 upon by the friends of holiness; namely, 1. Entire 
 
 consecration ; 2. Acceptance of Jesus moment by 
 19 
 
29O FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 moment as a perfect Saviour ; 3 . A meek but 
 definite confession of the grace received — and I 
 said, " These are scriptural and reasonable duties. " 
 The remembrance of my experience in Newtown 
 supplied an overwhelming confirmation of all this, 
 and at the same time a powerful stimulus in the 
 direction of duty. 
 
 " What then ? " I said, " I will cast aside all pre- 
 conceived theories, doubtful indulgences, culpable 
 unbelief, and retrace my steps/' 
 
 Alas ! that I should have wandered from the 
 light at all and afterward wasted so many years in 
 vacillating between self and God. Can I ever for- 
 give myself? O, what a bitter, bitter memory ! 
 The acknowledgment that I here make, con- 
 strained by candor and a concern for others, is 
 among the greatest humiliations of my life. If I 
 had the ear of those who have entered into the 
 clearer light of Christian purity, I would beseech, 
 entreat, supplicate, and charge them, with a broth- 
 er's interest and earnestness, that they be warned 
 by my folly. O ! let such consent to die, if it were 
 possible, a hundred deaths, before they willfully 
 depart from the path of holiness ; for if they 
 retrace their steps there will still be the remem- 
 brance of original purity tarnished, and that will 
 prove a drop of bitterness in the cup of their 
 sweetest comfort. 
 
 Eternal praise to my long-suffering Lord ! Nearly 
 
REV. ALFRED COOKMAN. 29 1 
 
 ten years have elapsed since, as the pastor of 
 Greene Street Church, in the city of Philadelphia, 
 I again dedicated my all carefully and fully to 
 God ; the consecration, of course, including the 
 doubtful indulgence. I said, " I will try and 
 abstain for Christ's sake. I would do any thing for 
 his sake ; and certainly I can consent to this self- 
 denial that Jesus may be glorified. " Again I 
 accepted Christ as my Saviour from all sin ; real- 
 ized the witness of the sanctifying Spirit ; and 
 since then I have been walking " in the light as God 
 is in the light," have fellowship with the saints, 
 and humbly testify that " the blood of Jesus cleans- 
 eth me from all sin." 
 
 " As ye have, therefore, received Christ Jesus the 
 Lord, so walk ye in him " — that is, as I understand, 
 continually repeat those exercises or duties you 
 performed when you accepted Christ as your all- 
 sufficient Saviour. I received him in a spirit of 
 entire consecration, implicit faith, and humble 
 confession. The constant repetition of these three 
 steps enables me to " walk in him." I cannot 
 afford, even for a single moment, to remove my 
 offering, to fail in looking unto Jesus, or to part 
 with the spirit of confession. 
 
 Thus I have honestly unfolded some personal 
 experiences in connection with the doctrine and 
 grace of sanctification. The recital humbles me in 
 the dust as it calls up the memory of years of vacil- 
 
2g2 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 lating and unsatisfactory religious life ; but it also 
 fills me with the profoundest gratitude for that 
 abounding mercy which not only bore with me, 
 but brought me to see again my privilege in the 
 Gospel, and now, for more than ten years, has been 
 preserving me in the experience, and blessing me 
 in the profession, of this great grace. Precious 
 reader, I now offer you this testimony ; but, 
 remember, before it meets your eye it has been 
 carefully placed upon the altar that sanctifieth the 
 gift, and an earnest prayer offered that it may be 
 blessed to your spiritual profit. 
 
REV. J. O. PECK, D.D. 293 
 
 X. 
 
 REV. J. O. PECK, D. D.* 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 T WAS converted in 1856, in Vermont, on a mount- 
 £) ain, alone, amid a terrific-thunder storm, after 
 only a few minutes* meditation upon the goodness 
 of God. 
 
 Shortly afterward I felt clearly a call to the minis- 
 try. I went to Newbury Seminary, Vt, but for two 
 years did not join the Church, as I was trying to 
 shake off the duty of the ministry. But in 1858 God 
 so signally revealed himself to me in gracious power 
 at Lyndonville camp-meeting that I promised Him 
 I would preach the Gospel. I returned to school, 
 prepared a sermon at once, and determined to put 
 the seal to my vow without delay. I told one of 
 the professors my convictions and purposes, and he 
 invited me to go with him to Mclndoe's Falls the 
 next Sabbath and preach. I did so, though I was 
 not then a member of the Church, and had no 
 license to preach but the inward call of the Holy 
 Ghost. I forthwith, however, joined the Church in 
 full, without probation, and was given a local preach- 
 er's license. 
 
 ♦Taken from Divine Life and submitted to Dr. Peck for revision. — Ed. 
 
294 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 In i860, while in college at Amherst, Mass.,. I 
 joined the New England Conference and supplied 
 neighboring churches till I graduated, in 1862, and 
 was appointed to Chelsea, Mass. I was pastor for 
 the next ten years* in Chelsea, Lowell, Worcester, 
 and Springfield. While pastor in Springfield, in 
 1872, a memorable incident in my experience occur- 
 red. I had never, consciously, lost my zeal or de- 
 votion to the Gospel ministry, nor the evidence of 
 my assured salvation in Jesus Christ. God never 
 left me a single year without a gracious revival, in 
 which many souls were given as the seals of my 
 ministry. Never had my pastorate been more fa- 
 vored with the divine blessing than at Springfield ; 
 but in the summer of 1872 a deep heart-hunger that 
 I had never known began to be realized. I hardly 
 knew how to understand it. I had not lost spirit- 
 uality, as far as I could judge of my condition. I 
 longed for I scarcely knew what. I examined my- 
 self and prayed more earnestly, but the hunger of 
 my soul grew more imperious. I was not plunged 
 in darkness or conscious of condemnation ; yet the 
 inward cravings increased. The result of these 
 weeks of heart-throes was a gradual sinking of self, 
 a consuming of all selfish ambitions and purposes, 
 and a consciousness of utter emptiness. Then arose 
 an unutterable longing to be filled. I waited upon 
 the Lord, but he delayed his coming. 
 
 No matter how or by whom, but I had been prej- 
 
REV. J. O. PECK, D.D. 295 
 
 udiced against the National Camp-meeting Asso- 
 ciation. I avoided their meetings ; but in the midst 
 of my longings of soul their meeting at Round Lake 
 in 1872 occurred. I had not thought of attending, 
 but in the midst of the meeting a conviction was 
 borne in upon me, as clear and unmistakable as my 
 identity, that if I would go to that meeting and 
 confess how I was hungering after more of salvation 
 I would be filled. To my surprise, and as a proof 
 that my sincerity was genuine, I found no prejudice 
 rising up, but a longing to go. I conferred not 
 with flesh and blood, got excused from officiating 
 at an important wedding, and started the next day. 
 I arrived near evening, and as I had but that 
 night and the next day before returning to my pul- 
 pit I resolved to waste no time. At once I told 
 the leaders of the meeting my purpose and errand. 
 I seemed to be near to Peniel, and my soul was im- 
 patient. After a sermon (by whom I forget, for men 
 were eclipsed in my yearning to see " Jesus only,") 
 I asked the privilege of saying a few words. Many 
 old friends were present, but I felt no hesitation, so 
 fully was I possessed by the desire to know " the 
 length, breadth, depth and height " of the love of 
 God. I frankly told my errand there, and sought 
 the prayers of all. I told them I wanted "the 
 fullness" that night, and felt it was the Divine 
 will to give it that hour. I then descended to the 
 altar and knelt with others before the Lord. I 
 
296 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 knew what I came for, believed it the will of God to 
 bestow it, and cast myself fully upon the promises 
 of God. By simple trust I was enabled to take 
 Christ as my sufficiency to fill and satisfy my hun- 
 gry soul. The instant I thus received Christ as my 
 " wisdom, righteousness^ sanctification and redemp- 
 tion, " the stillness and emotionlessness of absolute 
 quiet permeated my entire being. I came near be- 
 ing deceived, for I had anticipated being filled with 
 boundless ecstasy and joy. My enthusiastic and 
 highly emotional temperament foretokened this, and 
 I had already discounted such rapture. The tempter 
 was by my side instantly, and suggested seductively, 
 "All feeling has left you, the Spirit is withdrawn, 
 and you are doomed to disappointment." But 
 quick as thought came my reply, " With or without 
 feeling, I here and now take Christ as my all and in 
 all ! " I knew that moment he was my complete 
 Saviour ! At once the most delicious experience 
 was mine that I can conceive ! No joy, no rapture ; 
 but something sweeter, deeper than any thing before 
 known — " the peace of God that passeth all under- 
 standing !" It settled in upon me deeper and deeper, 
 sweeter and sweeter, till I seemed " filled with all 
 the fullness of God." I was ineffably satisfied. I 
 could not shout or speak. Words would have been 
 mockery of that peace I felt, 
 
 " That silent awe that dares not move." 
 I continued in speechless wonder until the meet- 
 
REV. J. O. PECK, D.D. 297 
 
 ing closed, and was wrapped in adoration. The 
 Spirit sealed these words on my heart, which have 
 been ever since the sweetest verse in the Bible to 
 me: " Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose 
 mind, is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee/' 
 My soul knew that peace, and was subdued and filled 
 with it. I continued through the night in that si- 
 lent bliss; but the next morning at the stand I 
 confessed the gracious work that Christ had wrought. 
 As I testified my soul caught fire and my words 
 burned with love, and yet peace was the supreme 
 consciousness. I returned home that day and, at 
 the first opportunity declared to my own flock the 
 fullness of Christ that had been bestowed. 
 
 And this experience I have never lost— not al- 
 ways equally clear and conspicuous, but ever a sacred 
 deposition in my heart. Certain results have fol- 
 lowed this experience or attended it in my ministry : 
 
 1. My soul has been one with God. I have not 
 had an ambition or plan or purpose that was not 
 formed in the desire to glorify God. Not perfect, 
 nor faultless, nor mistakenless, nor errorless, yet 
 the whole purpose of my life has been to please him. 
 
 2. I have had a greater love for my work. I al- 
 ways loved it intensely, but it has seemed to possess 
 me. The salvation of dying men has been a passion. 
 I love the work with glowing affection. 
 
 3. Greater results have followed my ministry. 
 More souls have been converted each year — two or 
 
298 FORTY WITNESSES, 
 
 three times more. I have had power unknown be- 
 fore to persuade sinners to come to Christ. 
 
 4. My intellectual work was at once vastly stim- 
 ulated. I have studied twice as much each year. 
 My thought has been clearer and my love for pa- 
 tient thinking more ardent. 
 
 5. Perfect love has reigned in my soul. I have 
 not slept a night since that camp-meeting with a 
 bitter or vindictive or unchristian feeling toward a 
 human being. It is easy to love men. I have ex- 
 perienced my share of occasions for the exhibition 
 of unsanctified human nature, but it does not spring 
 up. I judge it is not there. 
 
 6. I have had an aversion to argument or con- 
 troversy on the subject of Christian perfection. I 
 dare not speculate. I dare not mix my little human 
 philosophy with the great divine truth and the 
 divine experience. This instinctive shrinking from 
 polemic or speculative methods of treating this sub- 
 ject has, perhaps, made me misunderstood by reason 
 of my silence. Any movement which has seemed 
 to isolate or differentiate holiness from the tra- 
 ditional teachings of Christianity has not com- 
 manded my convictions. I do not condemn others, 
 but obey my own convictions. 
 
 " My soul doth magnify the Lord " for this ex- 
 perience which has doubled my joys, and, if I may 
 judge, doubled the effectiveness of my imperfect 
 ministry. J. O. PECK. 
 
PHCEBE PALMER. 299 
 
 XI. 
 
 PHCEBE PALMER. 
 
 (METHODIST.) 
 
 ?HCEBE PALMER was born in New York city, 
 December 18, 1807. She gave herself to the 
 Saviour in childhood. She always had great con- 
 scientiousness, profound admiration of goodness, a 
 longing for a higher life, and a wish to honor Christ 
 that tempted her to envy the martyr's crown. After 
 a great struggle in 1837 s ^ e experienced " perfect 
 love." The following extracts from her diary, as 
 found in her Life and Letters, will faintly reveal the 
 struggles and growth of her Christian character : . 
 
 November 24, 1827. — O, what a lack in my relig- 
 ious experience ! I am so often fearful and unbe- 
 lieving. I shrink from crosses and often bring con- 
 demnation upon my soul. I approve of the things 
 that are excellent, but am wanting in courage, faith, 
 and fervor. If the flames that consumed the martyrs 
 were before me, and the command given that I 
 should pass through them, it seems to me that I 
 would at once leap through the fire, and yet, strange 
 to say, my timid nature too often shrinks when duty 
 
3<X) FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 is presented. Too painfully do I know the mean- 
 ing of the poet : 
 
 " 'Tis worse than death my God to love, 
 And not my God alone." 
 
 April 28, 1832. — I am getting along feebly in the 
 divine life, not so much lacking in good purposes as 
 in carrying out my ever earnest resolve. 
 
 I ought to be more openly active. 
 
 I lack faith and courage. 
 
 August 8, 1835. — The Lord has given me a long- 
 ing desire for purity. I am sure I would not know- 
 ingly keep back any thing from God. But alas ! 
 there must be some hinderance. 
 
 July 27, 1837. — I never made much progress in 
 the career of faith until I most solemnly resolved, in 
 the strength of the Lord Jehovah, that I would do 
 every duty, though I might die in the effort. From 
 that hour my course was onward. Between the 
 hours of eight and nine o'clock yesterday I was led 
 by the Spirit to the determination that I would 
 never rest, day nor night, until I knew that the spring 
 of every motive was pure and that the consecration 
 I made of myself was wholly accepted. 
 
 That the covenant might be well ordered and 
 sure I thought " let me particularize taking every 
 step, so that not one may ever have to be retraced." 
 The first object presented to be given up was one 
 with which every fiber of my being seemed inter- 
 woven. With amazement I asked, can it be that the 
 
PHCEBE PALMER. 301 
 
 Lord requires that this one beloved object, dearer 
 to me than life itself, be bound to the altar? What 
 shall I have to live for if I give up this object ? 
 The Holy Spirit suggested, " Have you not often 
 said to the Lord, your Redeemer, * I take thee as 
 my only portion ! ' Now, God is taking you at your 
 word." 
 
 " What a sacrifice," said the tempter. " Did you 
 ever hear of such a sacrifice being required at the 
 hand of any one?" 
 
 Here the tender, loving Spirit interposed. " Did 
 Abraham know why he was called to give up Isaac 
 at the time he gave him up ? But he knows now. 
 And are you willing to wait till you get to heaven 
 in order to know why the Lord demands this sacri- 
 fice at your hand ? " My soul replied, " Yes ! Lord, 
 I will wait till knowledge is made perfect. Take 
 this object if thou dost require. Take life or friends 
 away. I am wholly thine ! There is not a tie that 
 binds me to earth. Every tie has been severed." 
 
 " Perhaps there is something that you do not 
 know of, not yet given up," whispered the tempter. 
 
 "What will not a man give for his life? and I 
 have given up that which is dearer to me than life. 
 I make no provision for future emergencies, resolved 
 hereafter, as God shall reveal his will, to say, * Be- 
 hold thy willing servant ! ' " 
 
 Arriving at this point the enemy had no further 
 ground for questioning, relative to the consecration, 
 
302 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 whether it was entire, absolute and unconditional. 
 From the depths of my being I felt that the con- 
 secration was absolute and universal and in view of 
 all coming time. But at this point I was for a mo- 
 ment perplexed with the question — 
 
 " How do you know that God will receive you? " 
 And here I paused and pondered, " How may I 
 know that the Lord does receive me?" To this, 
 in gentle whispers, the Spirit replied, " It is written, 
 I will receive you." " Must I believe it because it 
 simply stands written, without any other evidence 
 than the word of God?" I exclaimed. 
 
 In answer to these questionings the ever-blessed 
 Spirit (given to guide us into all truth) suggested, 
 " Suppose you should hear a voice speaking in tones 
 of thunder from heaven, saying, ' I will receive you/ 
 would you not believe it then ? " I could not help 
 believing it then, because I should have the " ev- 
 idence of my senses," was my reply. 
 
 In a moment I saw the inconsistency of my posi- 
 tion, remembering that I was taught by the Script- 
 ure most plainly, and had always known that the 
 blessing of entire sanctification was received by 
 faith, inasmuch as it stands written, " Sanctify them 
 through thy truth ; thy word is truth." 
 
 " But," said the adversary, " suppose after you 
 have believed you don't feel any different, what will 
 you do ? " Here the blessed word again met me, 
 tniensifying the truth, " The just shall live by faith." 
 
PHCEBE PALMER. 303 
 
 I now saw what faith was in all its simplicity. Such 
 perceptions of the divinity of the word I never 
 before had. So true is it that, u if any man will do 
 His will, he shall know of the doctrine." 
 
 I had thought of the doctrine of faith as difficult. 
 Now I saw that it was only to believe heartily what 
 in fact I had always professed to believe — that is, 
 that the Bible is the word of God just as truly as 
 though I could hear him speaking in tones of thun- 
 der from Sinai's Mount, and faith is to believe it ! 
 
 Still the enemy withstood me with the suggestion, 
 " Suppose you should be called to live a long life, 
 till you are threescore or a hundred years old, and 
 never have any of those manifestations that others 
 enjoy — never have any thing but the naked word 
 of God upon which to rely — and should die and 
 come up before your Judge without ever having 
 had any thing but the naked word to assure your 
 faith?" 
 
 My reply was, I would come up before my 
 Judge and in the face of an assembled universe say, 
 " The foundation of my faith was thy immutable 
 word." The moment I came to this point the 
 Holy Spirit most assuringly whispered, " This is 
 just the way in which Abraham, the father of the 
 faithful, walked." " By faith he journeyed, not 
 knowing whither he went." 
 
 There is joy in faith. " Can it be that the Lord 
 of the way is going to honor me thus, as to permit 
 
304 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 me all along through life to tread in the foot-prints 
 of the father of the faithful ?" — was the language 
 of my heart. 
 
 It was at this point that the covenant was con- 
 summated between God and my soul that I would 
 live a life of faith ; that however diversified life's 
 current might roll — though I might be called to en- 
 dure more complicated and long-continued trials of 
 my faith than were ever before conceived of, or even 
 brought to a climax, where, as with the father of 
 the faithful, commands and promises might seem to 
 conflict — I would still believe, though I might die 
 in the effort. I would hold on in the death struggle. 
 In the strength of Omnipotence I laid hold on 
 the word, " I will receive you ! " 
 
 Faith apprehended the written word not as a 
 dead letter, but as the living voice of the living God. 
 " Holy men of God spake as they were moved by 
 the Holy Ghost. " The holy Scriptures were inten- 
 sified to my mind as the lively or living oracles — the 
 voice of God to me as truly as though I could every 
 moment hear him speaking in tones of thunder from 
 Sinai. And now that, through the inworkings of 
 the Holy Spirit, I had presented all my redeemed 
 powers to God, through Christ, how could I doubt 
 his immutable word, "I will receive you?" 
 
 O, with what light, clearness and power, were the 
 words invested, " Sanctify them through thy truth, 
 thy word is truth ! " 
 
PHCEBE PALMER. 305 
 
 Yet, though I knew that it could not be other- 
 wise than that God did receive me, my faith was at 
 once put to the test. I had expected that some 
 wonderful manifestation would at once follow as the 
 reward of my faith. But I was shut up to faith — 
 naked faith in a naked promise. 
 
 The next step, faith, in regard to divine accept- 
 ance of all, had also been distinctly taken. And 
 now, as I plainly saw the third step clearly defined 
 in the word, I took the advanced ground — con- 
 fession. 
 
 Giving God the glory due to his name, I exclaimed, 
 " Through thy grace alone I have been enabled to 
 give myself wholly and forever to thee. Thou hast 
 given thy word, assuring me that thou dost receive. 
 I believe that word ! Alleluia ! the Lord God Om- 
 nipotent reigneth unrivaled in my heart. Glory be 
 to the Father ! Glory be to the Son ! Glory be to 
 the Holy Spirit forever ! " O, into what a region of 
 light, glory and purity, was my soul at this moment 
 ushered ! I felt that I was but as a drop in the 
 ocean of infinite love, and Christ was all in all. 
 
 If any one had asked me previous to this, " Are 
 
 any of the graces of the Spirit perfected in you ? " 
 
 I might have said, " I am, indeed, greatly deficient 
 
 in all the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit ; but 
 
 if one grace is nearer perfected than another it is 
 
 the grace of humility.'' But never before did I 
 
 know the meaning of the word humility. How the 
 20 
 
306 FORTY WITNESSES. 
 
 realization was intensified to my mind, " Not by 
 works of righteousness that we have done ! " I saw 
 that I was not sufficient of myself to think a good 
 thought, much less to perform a righteous action. 
 I felt that I could not save myself even for one mo- 
 ment, and from the depths my soul cried out, 
 
 " Every moment, Lord, I need 
 The merit of thy death." 
 
 September 9, 1837. — After retiring last evening, 
 being much fatigued in body, my sleep was very 
 confused, and though my confidence was not in the 
 least shaken, yet that near communion and distinct- 
 ness of perception of the persons of the Trinity 
 which had made any approaches through faith to 
 the throne so effectual and soul-transforming was 
 hindered. I felt the fullest assurance that it was the 
 tempter. I arose and pleaded with the Lord, and 
 though the cloud was not then removed, yet such was 
 the assurance I felt that it was the bufferings of 
 Satan for a short season that I almost rejoiced in 
 expectation of the glory that would subsequently 
 be revealed. I retired, but soon awoke in a most 
 triumphant frame of mind. 
 
 November 20, 1837. — I have felt for some time 
 past most intense desires after conformity to God. 
 The breathings have not been unavailing. I would 
 thankfully acknowledge that an increase of spiritual 
 life has been the result, but I feel that I do not in- 
 dulge sufficiently in the spirit of praise. 
 
\ 
 
 PHCEBE PALMER. 307 
 
 June 20, 1841. — For some months past I have 
 been called to pass through scenes of unusual trial, 
 ordeals of spiritual and mental conflict. Though 
 deeply conscious of many shortcomings, grace has 
 sustained. 
 
 1843. — I find.it somewhat crossing to the flesh to 
 abstain, (as it is my custom on Friday,) to-day, a 
 little more than usual, as it excites some observa- 
 tion which could not well be avoided, an excellent 
 dinner being prepared for us. My health will not 
 permit my fasting, as a general thing, wholly, but I 
 find it well to observe the day in frequent acts of 
 self-denial. Paul says, ■" I keep my body under." 
 I find it helpful to my spiritual health to do like- 
 wise. To-day I had reason to be thankful that I 
 >did so. 
 
 August 21 , 1845. — Though not always fully able 
 from sensible assurance to pronounce an onward 
 course, yet, as Brother Hamline has said, " When the 
 mists have eleared away we have found, though 
 driven about, that our heavenly Pilot has carried 
 us safely and surely onward." 
 
 January 19, 1847. — Temptations complicated and 
 diverse abound. O, God! my heavenly Father, 
 grant that in all I may be more than conqueror. 
 
 November 27, 1853. — Returned home last night 
 ill. Unmistakable symptoms indicated several days* 
 indisposition. I asked the Lord that he would 
 restore me and cause me to rise with comfortable 
 
3<d8 forty witnesses. 
 
 health in the morning, unless it would be more to 
 his glory that I should be ill. I felt that the Lord 
 heard me and knew that the answer would be such 
 as would glorify him. This morning, at the com- 
 mand of Him who spake and diseases obeyed his 
 word, I arose in comfortable health. 
 
 January I, 1856. — I feel that my union with God 
 is inward, vital, and real. Most consciously do I 
 realize that all my interests are identified with the 
 interests of Christ's kingdom. If this should be my 
 last testimony I would wish to say before God, 
 angels, and men, that from my own heart experiences 
 I know that God can, through the power of the 
 Holy Spirit, so subdue the heart as to bring the 
 whole soul into a joyous obedience to Christ. 
 
 February 25, 1857. — Through the grace of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ I believe I can say that I have 
 never given way to discouragements during the past 
 twenty years. 
 
 October 13, 1872. — The human and the divine are 
 so closely identified that continual watchfulness is 
 necessary or we may at unawares walk after our 
 own spirit instead of the Spirit of God, 
 
 June 13, 1872. — O, yes! this body is the temple 
 of the Holy Ghost. Whence this absence of all 
 desire to live for self? Whence these ceaseless 
 inworkings to work, live, think and speak for God ? 
 Whence this absorbing, controlling love for God 
 and his cause ? Conscious, deeply conscious, that I 
 
PHCEBE PALMER. 309 
 
 have received the sentence of death in myself, 
 whence this realization of reliance, momentary 
 reliance, on him that raiseth the dead ? 
 
 October 5, 1873. — I am daily apprehending more 
 fully not only that salvation is by faith, but that 
 salvation in all its degrees is the result of a mo- 
 mentary act. 
 
 She died, in the joys and triumphs of salvation, 
 November 2, 1874. 
 
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