There is not in Scripture a word more distinctly Divine in its origin
and meaning than the word holy. There is not a word that leads us higher
into the mystery of Deity, nor deeper into the privilege and the
blessedness of God's children. And yet it is a word that many a
Christian has never studied or understood.
There are not a few who can praise God that during the past twenty years
the watchword BE HOLY has been taken up in many a church and Christian
circle with greater earnestness than before. In books and magazines, in
conventions and conferences, in the testimonies and the lives of
believers, we have abundant tokens that what is called the
Holiness-movement is a reality.
And yet how much is still wanting! What multitudes of believing
Christians there are who have none but the very vaguest thoughts of what
holiness is! And of those who are seeking after it how many who have
hardly learnt what it is to come to God's Word and to God Himself for
the teaching that can alone reveal this part of the mystery of Christ
and of God! To many, holiness has simply been a general expression for
the Christian life in its more earnest form, without much thought of
what the term really means.
In writing this little book, my object has been to discover in what
sense God uses the word, that so it may mean to us what it means to Him.
I have sought to trace the word through some of the most important
passages of Holy Scripture where it occurs, there to learn what God's
holiness is, what ours is to be, and what the way by which we attain it.
I have been specially anxious to point out how many and various the
elements are that go to make up true holiness as the Divine expression
of the Christian life in all its fulness and perfection. I have at the
same time striven continually to keep in mind the wonderful unity and
simplicity there is in it, as centred in the person of Jesus. As I
proceeded in my work, I felt ever more deeply how high the task was I
had undertaken in offering to guide others even into the outer courts of
the Holy Place of the Most High. And yet the very difficulty of the task
convinced me of how needful it was.
I fear there are some to whom the book may be a disappointment. They
have heard that the entrance to the life of holiness is often but a
step. They have heard of or seen believers who could tell of the blessed
change that has come over their lives since they found the wonderful
secret of holiness by faith. And now they are seeking for this secret.
They cannot understand that the secret comes to those who seek it not,
but only seek Jesus. They might fain have a book in which all they need
to know of Holiness and the way to it is gathered into a few simple
lessons, easy to learn, to remember, and to practise. This they will not
find. There is such a thing as a Pentecost still to the disciples of
Jesus; but it comes to him who has forsaken all to follow Jesus only,
and in following fully has allowed the Master to reprove and instruct
him. There are often very blessed revelations of Christ, as a Saviour
from sin, both in the secret chamber and in the meetings of the saints;
but these are given to those for whom they have been prepared, and who
have been prepared to receive. Let all learn to trust in Jesus, and
rejoice in Him, even though their experience be not what they would
wish. He will make us holy. But whether we have entered the blessed life
of faith in Jesus as our sanctification, or are still longing for it
from afar, we all need one thing, the simple, believing, and obedient
acceptance of each word that our God has spoken. It has been my earnest
desire that I might be a helper of the faith of my brethren in seeking
to trace with them the wondrous revelation of God's Holiness through the
ages as recorded in His blessed Word. It has been my continual prayer
that God might use what is written to increase in His children the
conviction that we must be holy, the knowledge of how we are to be holy,
the joy that we may be holy, the faith that we can be holy. And may He
stir us all to cry day and night to Him for a visitation of the Spirit
and the Power of Holiness upon all His people, that the name of
Christian and of saint may be synonymous, and every believer be a vessel
made holy and meet for the Master's use.