follows from this new experience, or new fact, or new facts, of "salvation," and it becomes very speedily evident that Christianity is an absolute religion, which cannot become obsolete. It is only by ignoring the reconciliation of many antinomies which Christ has made that the transitoriness of his work can become in any degree plausible.

ALFRED CAVE.

ART. II.-The Secret of Sanctification.1

No more important subject than this of sanctification can

occupy the attention of living men. It represents the chief contribution of Christianity to the morals of the world. Inasmuch then as the subject of ethics is receiving an unusual amount of attention at the present time, and as in such volumes as Spencer's Data of Ethics and Stephen's Science of Ethics we have the flower and fruit of the world's wisdom upon morals, it may not be inopportune to subject Christian ethics, so far as sanctification is concerned, to careful treatment. If we mistake not, there will be found in the Christian method a simplicity and a power in striking contrast to the abstract subtleties which go to form the refined selfishness which, with the world, passes muster as morals.

1 The Work of the Holy Spirit in Man. Discourses by G. Tophel, pastor of the Evangelical Church, Geneva. Translated from the French by Rev. T. J. Després. Edinburgh T. and T. Clark, 1882. Pp. i.-viii. 118.

Holiness as understood by the Writers of the Bible, by Joseph Agar Beet. Second Edition. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1880. Pp. 62.

The Higher Life' Doctrine of Sanctification tried by the Word of God, by Henry A. Boardman, D.D. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication. 1877. Pp. 286.

The Sinlessness of Jesus, an Evidence for Christianity, by Carl Ullmann, D.D. Translated by Sophia Taylor. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark. 1870. Pp. i.-xii. 300.

La Sainteté Parfaite de Jésus Christ, par F. Godet, Neuchatel. 1869. Le Saint Esprit, étude doctrinale et pratique sur sa personne et sur son œuvre, par E. Guers. Toulouse: Société des Livres Religieux. 1865. Pp. i.-xii.

348.

The Christ of History, by John Young, LL.D. Third Edition. London: William Allan. 1861. Pp. i.-xiv. 257.

Lehre von der Person Christi, von Wolfgang F. Gess. Berlin: 1856. Christi Person und Werk nach Christi Selbstzeugniss und den Zeugnissen der Apostel, von W. F. Gess, D.D. Basel: 1870, 1878, and 1879.

It will not be needful to notice at length the Agent in Sanctification. This is the Holy Ghost; and there is no dispute among Christians upon the point. Increased attention has in recent years been paid to his person and operation. This is so far a matter for thankfulness. If it was true some time since that the Church had largely "unlearned the Holy Spirit," it can hardly be maintained now. The truth seems rather to be that we are now in danger of grieving the Holy Ghost by giving more attention to him than to the great Object he labours to reveal. The two works mentioned in our list, from the pens of French pastors, contain interesting discussions upon the work of the Holy Ghost. The recent one contains hardly anything which was not stated more clearly and fully in 1865, by M. Guers. Still M. Tophel has made the subject his own; and, though we are inclined to question one or two of his positions, there can be no doubt about the freshness and earnestness of his discussion. The Paraclete, by Dr. Joseph Parker, is another volume, published in the first instance anonymously in 1874, upon the personality and ministry of the Holy Ghost, and contains many striking and epigrammatic statements. We need only mention the "Higher Life" literature in bulk, by such authors as W. E. Boardman, Asa Mahan, C. G. Finney, and the Smiths, husband and wife: it deals with the work of the Spirit in man, although radiating a very considerable amount of darkness and confusion upon Christian experience. But the ablest volume in recent years. on the subject of the work of the Spirit is undoubtedly The Philosophy of the Divine Operation in the Redemption of Man, by James B. Walker, that "American citizen" who did such service to truth in his little volume on The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation, and who, in 1869, followed it up with this small volume about the Holy Spirit. It deserves more attention than, so far as we know, it has received.

But there is one feature in the agency of the Holy Ghost deserving of the fullest consideration, and this is His striking want of self-assertion, His freedom, if we may risk the thought, from all egotism. He has no desire, as the Scriptures He has inspired show, to direct any special attention to Himself. Any references made to His personality and work are of the most cursory character. He has evidently no idea, after the manner

of men, of making himself his hero. He shall not speak of himself" was the splendid testimony of Christ regarding him. In truth, the Scripture references to the Holy Ghost are such as a most modest author would give incidentally about himself in the course of a work written to magnify another. While it may be most interesting, therefore, to meditate upon these incidental references, it becomes us never to lose sight of the fact that it is the manifestation of another which the Spirit has constantly in view, and by this manifestation He means to elevate mankind. In short, it is not the doctrine about the Holy Ghost which saves and sanctifies, but the doctrine about the Person, or rather the Person himself, whom the Spirit all through "delighteth to honour." Who is the Spirit's hero will presently appear.

Assuming, then, that the Holy Spirit is the agent in sanctification, we pass at once to consider what sanctification means and how He is pleased to secure it. The word άyiaoμós, translated in Scripture sometimes "sanctification" and sometimes "holiness," as reference to the following passages will show-Rom. vi. 19-22; 1 Cor. i. 30; 1 Thess. iv. 3, 4, 7; 2 Thess. ii. 13; 1 Tim. ii. 15; Heb. xii. 14; and 1 Pet. i. 2-is only found in Biblical and ecclesiastical Greek. It denotes, according to Cremer in his Biblico-Theological Lexicon, " 1. The accomplishment of the salvation expressed in ayağeiv, and 2. The result of this action, in that it is contemplated as effected." When then we next inquire about the exact meaning of áɣáče, we find that it means "to set something into a state opposed to κοινόν ; or where the something is already κοινόν to deliver it from this state and put it into a state corresponding to the revealed nature of God." Or, to quote from Professor Godet, when referring in one of his works to our Lord sanctifying Himself,

"To sanctify one's-self is not synonymous with to purify one's-self. To purify one's-self supposes that one has been polluted (souille); to sanctify one's-self is simply to consecrate to God the natural faculties of soul and of body, at the moment when they enter into exercise. Pure is opposed to impure, holy (saint) to profane or natural."1

A person consequently can "sanctify himself" who does not

1 Cf. Etudes Bibliques, par F. Godet, D.D., Deuxième Série, p. 111.

Mr. Beet on Scriptural Holiness.

623

need to purify himself. This was our Lord's position, as John xvii. 19 shows.

Now in Mr. Beet's little book we have a careful induction made of the passages where "holiness" and its cognates occur. He is exceedingly anxious to make emphatic the idea of consecration, or setting apart for a sacred purpose, as covering the term in question. He even goes the length of saying—

"The priests were holy, whatever might be their conduct. Samson was a holy man of God, even in the embrace of Delilah, for God's claim that they should be His had placed them in a new position, and could not be set aside by, although it greatly aggravated the guilt of, their unfaithfulness. Just so, God claims for Himself all those whom He rescues from the penalty of their sins. And, whatever they may do, His claim puts them in a new and very solemn position." 1

This Mr. Beet calls "objective holiness," and then he proceeds to speak of the realisation of this in human experience, thus:

"That man is holy who looks upon himself and all his possessions as belonging to God, and uses all his time, powers, and opportunities, to work out the purposes of God, i.e. to advance the kingdom of Christ. This is the subjective holiness to which God calls His people."2

And Mr. Beet manifestly imagines that this perfect consecration may be realised in this life, as a further quotation will show:

"In Romans vi. 11, St. Paul bids us to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, but living for God in Christ Jesus. This reckoning is the mental process of faith. For it results in assurance resting upon the promise of God. Now we cannot do wrong in obeying the apostle, i.e. in reckoning ourselves to be dead to sin, and henceforth living for God. But up to this moment we have been sadly alive to sin, and living in part to please ourselves. Our own past experience contradicts flatly the reckoning which St. Paul bids us make. But as we stand beneath the cross of him who died that we might live no longer for ourselves but for him, and as we feel the constraining power of his mysterious love, we dare not hesitate. And with a confidence which seems to us akin to madness, but which is commanded by God, we venture to believe, at the apostle's bidding, that we are now dead to sin, and from this moment we shall live for God, and that in this separation from sin and devotion to God we shall be maintained to the end of life by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. And while we thus believe, the command of God, which in believing we obey, is itself a pledge that in the moment of our faith God works in us that which he bids us believe. Else

1 Pp. 39-40.

2 P. 41.

the reckoning which at his bidding we make is false, and his word a deception. Therefore, just as we obtain forgiveness by believing that in the moment of our faith, and through the death of Christ, our sins are forgiven, so, by believing that it is ours, we also so obtain and retain the holiness which God requires and gives."1

The same view is given by Mr. Beet in his Commentary on the Romans under chap. vi. 11, where he declares this death unto sin to be no

"impracticable ideal, or one to be obtained only by few, and after long spiritual effort. Paul says that God designs baptism to be the entrance into it. It is therefore designed for the lambs who have lately entered the fold. They obtain it by reckoning at God's bidding, i.e. by believing, that it is already theirs. This implies that our separation from sin and devotion to God are God's gifts to us, and work in us. . . . And it implies that God gives them to us IN THE MOMENT WE BELIEVE THEM TO BE OURS. Else our reckoning, which we make at his bidding, is a mistake."

It must be admitted, that if this account of the victory over sin be correct, it resolves itself into the easiest thing in the world. All that is necessary is to believe on the ground of Romans vi. 11, that it is dead, and lo, in a moment, it is gone and need never trouble us more!

This earnest effort to make out "perfect sanctification” as a present possibility is fallacious, and a little careful thinking will show it. Consecration to God, as a conscious experience, is not so simple a matter as Mr. Beet supposes. It implies some knowledge of God and of His most holy will. To speak of Samson being "a holy man of God, even in the embrace of Delilah," is a strange confusion of thought. Was Samson at the moment consciously consecrated to God, or was he simply seeking self-indulgence? Samson's position was identical with that of the priestesses of Venus, except that they, poor things, imagined Venus was gratified through their impurities, while Samson dare not suppose that his riot was pleasing to the Holy One he professed to worship. In order to perfect consecration, there must be a knowledge of the Divine nature and will, so far as they are revealed, and this in the very nature of things cannot be acquired in a moment. It requires time and “long spiritual effort," so that the laborious effort made by Mr. Beet in his pamphlet and in his commentary to justify the Arminian notion of "perfect sanctification" only reveals the inaccuracy