God smote his foes. It was his part to obey God, to break the pitcher, to cry out, and sound the trumpet; all the rest of the victory belonged to God.

When God bade David fetch a compass, and by a strategic movement reach the mulberry-trees, he also bade him wait there, until the heliograph from the throne, should call to the battle.

David obeyed God; but those moments of waiting were moments of awful suspense. Indifference was an impossibility at that time. No committees were needed to plan amusements for the army. Every muscle and nerve trembled with intense expectancy. His hand grasped the cutlass and spear with sinews of steel. His ear was turned attent toward the mulberry-trees; and when the rustling foliage announced the presence of God he was ready to run; and the Lord smote the Philistine host, and their carcases and the spoil, strewed all the plain from Geba to Gazer.

The week of prayer spent in the upper room was for human preparation. I have tried in vain to modernize that eventful period of waiting. As the prophetic moment drew near, every heart throbbed with the wildest anticipation of the coming glory. That was the pivotal moment of all the ages-the first prophetic promise pointed to that time. The scenes of Calvary and Olivet renewed the promise and pledged its fulfilment; and when the baptism came the infant church was at once prepared for victory over the hosts of sin; and now,

"The rolling year brings back the time,

With blessed joys replete,

When on the waiting Church came down
The Holy Paraclete.

The fire in quivering tongues of flame
Descending sat on each;

To fill with fervency of love

And fluency of speech.

Swiftly and straight each tongue of flame Through cloud and breeze unwavering came, And darted to its place of rest

On some meek brow, of Jesus blest.

Nor fades it yet that living gleam,
And still those lambent lightnings stream.
Where'er the Lord is, there are they,
In every heart that gives him room;
They light his altar every day,

Zeal to inflame, and sin consume.”

XVII.

THE WHAT, THE WHEN, AND THE HOW OF
HOLINESS.

"Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." -JOHN

xv. 3.

"And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith."— ACTS xv. 8, 9.

It em

"Be

God is

THE doctrine and experience of heart purity are inseparable from the gospel. Holiness and heart purity are synonymous terms; they signify the same thing. Holiness lies back of all that is said or seen. braces the why of all doctrine and all theology. ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy." holy; and man is his child, and can never be happy anywhere until he is made holy. God made man holy at the first, and he corrupted himself by sinning. After that, Jesus Christ "Redeemed him by his own blood," and provided for his complete restoration to the favor of God.

This complete renewal embraces three aspects or phases: Pardon, life, and purity. The apostasy embraces guilt, spiritual death, and moral defilement.

These three aspects of experience, — pardon, life, and purity, each perfect in itself, constitute the experience of full salvation as taught by the doctrinal standards of the Methodist Church.

The fire in quivering tongues of flame
Descending sat on each;

To fill with fervency of love

And fluency of speech.

Swiftly and straight each tongue of flame Through cloud and breeze unwavering came, And darted to its place of rest

On some meek brow, of Jesus blest.

Nor fades it yet that living gleam,
And still those lambent lightnings stream.
Where'er the Lord is, there are they,
In every heart that gives him room;
They light his altar every day,

Zeal to inflame, and sin consume.”

XVII.

THE WHAT, THE WHEN, AND THE HOW OF
HOLINESS.

"Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." — JOHN XV. 3.

"And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith."— ACTS xv. 8, 9.

THE doctrine and experience of heart purity are inseparable from the gospel. Holiness and heart purity are synonymous terms; they signify the same thing. Holiness lies back of all that is said or seen.

braces the why of all doctrine and all theology.

It em

"Be

ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy." God is holy; and man is his child, and can never be happy anywhere until he is made holy. God made man holy at the first, and he corrupted himself by sinning. After that, Jesus Christ "Redeemed him by his own blood," and provided for his complete restoration to the favor of God.

This complete renewal embraces three aspects or phases: Pardon, life, and purity. The apostasy embraces guilt, spiritual death, and moral defilement.

These three aspects of experience, - pardon, life, and purity, each perfect in itself, constitute the experience of full salvation as taught by the doctrinal standards of the Methodist Church.