"Roam through weary years
Of inbred sin and doubts and fears,
A bleak and toilsome wilderness."
If you have not passed through the Jordan, the death-convulsions of
the "old man" of sin, to the Canaan rest, it is because you have
either ignorantly or wilfully "refused him that speaketh," and
"entered not in because of unbelief."...
"I will fill this house with glory." Here is the glory that Christ
gives: "The Spirit of glory and of God," that fills and rests upon
the church when inbred sin and all weights are shaken out. What
is here associated with the "once more" shaking corresponds with
entire sanctification.
The prophet Ezekiel gives us a very interesting chain of concurring
prophesy. Who with his spiritual eyes open can fail to see the
application of the 34th chapter of Ezekiel to the ministry,
in general, of this age? They "eat up the good pasture"--fare
sumptuously on fat salaries. 'Ye tread down the residue of your
pastures' and 'foul the waters with your feet.' They are the real
cause of spiritual famine instead of the means of refreshing the
flock. "Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool." Make
a lucrative merchandise of your Christless sermons, instead of
administering the free gospel of salvation. "Ye kill them that are
fed: but ye feed not the flock." When any find their way to the
true Shepherd and receive food, life, and holy fire in their souls,
they annoy the dead and sleeping, who proceed at once to kill them.
This is no idle fancy. It is an undeniable fact that in most of our
present-day churches a real convert can scarcely maintain spiritual
life. The few that are not killed are usually driven or thrown out.
O ye shepherds, a crisis from the Almighty is coming upon you. As
the Lord liveth, the fires from heaven shall sweep away your craft.
"Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes,
ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of
your dispersions are accomplished" (Jer. 25:34). Their time of
feasting upon and dispersing the Lord's flock will come to an end.
"I will deliver my flock from their mouth," and "they shall no more
be a prey" (Ezek. 34:10,22). "I will seek out my sheep, and will
deliver them out of all places [sectarian divisions] where they
have been scattered [into several hundred parties] in the cloudy
and dark day" (v. 12). We talk of the dark age as in the past; but
the seer of God declares that we are yet under its lingering fogs,
and shall be until holy fire from heaven shall sweep away every
partition-wall, human creed, and party name, and purge out that
infamous god, the sectarian spirit; the vile "image of jealousy"
which sits in all the thresholds of Babylon.
"And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from
the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed
them" (v. 13). Yea, "I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon
the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be" (v. 14). "And I
will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my
servant David [Christ--David was already dead four hundred years];
he shall feed them, and shall be their shepherd" (v. 23).
The perfect reign of the Messiah, and his love in the soul, is to
succeed the dark day of party confusion. The two are not compatible
with each other. "And I will make with them a covenant of peace"
(v. 25). Their own land, and this covenant-union with God, is
simply entire sanctification. See Jer. 23....
In Ezekiel 35 we have the judgment of mount Seir. Seir--=rough=,
=shaggy=--we presume is used [in the typical sense] to denote the
Catholic power.
It was inhabited by the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, who
were therefore brothers with Israel, the descendants of Jacob;
but the Edomites had a deep-rooted and perpetual enmity against
Israel, they harassed and distressed them by all possible means,
(See A. Clark.) "Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee, and I
will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most
desolate ... because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast
shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword
in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity
had an end." (vs. 3-5). Does not this look like the record of the
"beast that sits upon the seven hills"? Martyrdom, it appears, is
confined to such times when God's people have reached an "end of
sin."
As the spirit of prophesy uses mount Seir to represent Catholicism
in chapter 35, and the Caucasian mountains [Gog and Magog, see
Bible dictionary] to represent sectism in chapters 38 and 39, so
in chapter 36:1 the "mountains of Israel" are used to represent
the true conscientious Christians. The Lord says, "Set thy face
against mount Seir," "against Gog," and "prophesy against him;"
but in reference to the mountains of Israel, the order is changed
to "prophesy unto," showing that the former were rejected, but the
latter accepted of the Lord; to these very precious promises are
made. In the latter part of the chapter we have associated together
salvation "from all uncleanness," the gift of the Holy Spirit, and
"bringing into the land," i. e., the land of perfect holiness....
The spirit of prophesy now takes up another figure to set forth the
holiness crisis and the glorious effect in those "that abide the
day" of the Refiner's coming. "Moreover, thou son of man, take thee
one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of
Israel, his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it,
For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel
his companions: and join them one to another into one stick; and
they shall become one in thine hand. And when the children of thy
people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what
thou meanest by these? Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God;
Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of
Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them
with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick,
and they shall be one in mine hand" (Ezek. 37:16-19).
Who does not know that this never was really fulfilled in the
alienated sects of Jacob's literal seed? While it may apply to the
formation of the church in the beginning of the reign of Christ,
it was specially designed to typify the return of the church
to God and the mount of holy union after the "falling away" or
"cloudy and dark day." The figure does not properly suggest the
formation of a new church state, but the gathering again of a
divided and starved-out church under the pastorate of corrupt and
self-aggrandizing shepherds. "I ... will gather them on every side,
and bring them into their own land ... I will save them out of all
their dwelling-places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse
them, so shall they be my people and I will be their God. And David
[Christ, "the root and offspring of David"] my servant shall be
king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd" (vs. 21-24).
Nothing but entire sanctification can unite the saints under the
direct control, and headship of Christ, through the Comforter.
"And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my
servant, wherein your fathers [in the day of the church's purity]
have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their
children, and their children's children forever: and my servant
David shall be their prince [even Christ, for him hath God exalted
to be a Prince and a Savior] forever. Moreover I will make a
covenant of peace with them; ... and the heathen shall know that
I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the
midst of them forevermore" (vs. 25-28). Here is the solution of
the whole matter. The reception of the Spirit, uniting into one,
placing in the land, cleansing, and the "covenant of peace" under
the glorious reign of the "Prince of peace," is all summed up
and consummated in the sanctification of the church through the
indwelling of the Holy Trinity.
Instead of exterminating the idols and "Canaanites in the house
of the Lord of hosts," the "shepherds of Israel" have catered to
their unholy lusts. They have so long truckled to the world in
the church, so long fawned and pampered sin under the cloak of
religion, that a terrible conflict ensues whenever it is attacked
by the sword of the Spirit. This crisis is described in the two
following chapters, namely, Ezekiel 38, 39.
"Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the
chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and
say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog"
(38:2,3). The Bible dictionary applies Gog and Magog to the
Caucasian mountains, a chain that extends from the Black Sea to the
Caspian. The Scythians of those regions were a fierce and warlike
people. For many years they had made their name a terror to the
whole Eastern world. They were finally conquered and driven out, B.
C. 596, a few years before the time of Ezekiel's prophesy. These
events being fresh in the mind of the ancient seer, the prophetic
spirit employs Gog and Magog to represent the acrid and intolerable
spirit of sectarianism and its final overthrow.
Meshech and Tubal, allies of Gog, are noticed in history as "the
remotest and rudest nations of the world." David, it is probable,
spoke prophetically of the same contentious, unsanctified zeal:
"Woe is me, that I sojourn in Meshech.... My soul hath long dwelt
with him that hateth peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they
are for war" (Psa. 120:5-7).
In applying the army of Gog and Magog to the false, deceived,
and sectarian forces, the enemies of the Lord's true and holy
church, I am clearly sustained in Revelation 20:8-10, where they
are declared to have been deceived by the devil, therefore have a
spurious religion--are professors. "They compass the saints on the
breadth of the earth;" hence are diffused throughout all nations
and everywhere arrayed against the holy; but shall be finally
destroyed by fire from heaven. This vast army Ezekiel represents as
'coming from their place out of the north parts' (38:6,15; 39:2),
indicative of a cold and heartless religion. The attack upon the
"land" by Gog, shall be in the "latter years," "the latter days,"
(38:8,11). This language all through the prophets points to the
last, or present, dispensation.
"In the latter years thou shall come into the land [the sanctified]
that is brought back from the sword [saved from the carnal,
sectarian "strife of tongues"], and is gathered out of many people,
against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste;" i.
e., more or less destitute of the apostolic faith and power.
God sets the testimony of his anointed against the worldly
churches. Gog in return makes war upon them. But being dead to sin,
and having a resurrected life, they are an invulnerable army. "They
shall dwell safely all of them" (v. 8).
"And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come
against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall
come up in my face. For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath
have I spoken. Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in
the land of Israel" (vs. 18, 19). When the sword of the Almighty
is unsheathed against self-righteous orthodox sinners, there is
soon war in the camp, and a general commotion in the heavens and
the earth. The two-edged sword of definite testimony is now wielded
in every church, which has never been the case in any of the past
holiness reforms.... Amen! Let the battle rage, though the heavens
and the earth be moved. Send down the fire, O Lord, send fire from
heaven, and burn every Gog-schism out of the church! Yea, saith
the Lord, "I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell
carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the Lord."
The burning of the weapons and burying of Gog is described as the
cleansing of the land--the church. Therefore it is the special work
of sanctification, and the heavens and the earth are now shaken by
the tread of God's holy army, who are 'severed out to continual
employment, passing through the land to cleanse it.'
Let us now begin with 1 Pet. 4:17,18. "For the time is come that
judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at
us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly
and the sinner appear?" Here is a trying ordeal, a judgmental
shaking of the church parallel with that described in Hebrews. It
is the execution of Christ's verdict of death to sin in the flesh.
"The time is come." Scriptures thus introduced almost invariably
refer to some previous prediction. In the prophecies of Isaiah we
find what is doubtless the antecedent of Peter's words: "I will
turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take
away all thy tin: ... afterwards thou shalt be called, The city
of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with
judgment, and her converts with righteousness" (Isa. 1:25-27).
The judgment of Zion, the house of God, is her full redemption.
It is the hand of the Almighty 'purely purging away the dross and
all the tin' from his church, that it might be called the "city of
righteousness." This experience is not for the sinner, nor is it
confined to the aged and dying; but the "converts" in Zion, saith
the Lord, shall be redeemed from sin, by the spirit of judgment and
the spirit of burning. This purging is parallel with the removing
of those things that are shaken.
"In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and
glorious [i. e., 'sanctified and cleansed, a glorious church'
(Eph. 5:26,27)], and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent
and comely for them that are escaped of Israel [have 'escaped the
corruption that is in the world']. And it shall come to pass, that
he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall
be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in
Jerusalem: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the
daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem
from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit
of burning" (Isa. 4:2-4). This explains the words of Peter very
clearly; the judgment of the house of God is a divine washing and
purging. The church, having passed through the spirit of judgment
and of burning, all that are left therein "shall be called holy."
Therefore, we understand the words of Peter as having reference to
the sin-consuming flames of the Sanctifier, the baptism of the Holy
Ghost, which corresponds with the shaking of the church, of which
Paul speaks in Hebrews; for he concludes by saying, "Our God is a
consuming fire."
If ever there was a time when Peter's words were pertinent, it
is now. The hand of the Almighty is upon his church, and he will
smite and humble it with his judgments; shake it with his voice
from heaven, and consume it with the flames of his Spirit until
every foul spirit is driven out and all the "works of the devil"
destroyed; that nothing may remain but the pure, unalloyed elements
of the divine "kingdom, which can not be shaken." No wonder the
churches so often fear and dread the coming of God's holy bands;
yea, "a fire burns before them," which quite frequently closes
all meeting-houses and every other place where the sects can
defeat their access. It is because they know that they are but
a collection of ecclesiastical stubble, which can not abide the
fire which accompanies the Lord's army of definite witnesses.
Here we also see that the charge that insisting upon the definite
experience of entire sanctification destroys the churches is true
only so far as they are composed of "wood, hay, and stubble." Fire
never destroys gold and silver....
In Joel we have the declaration: "The Lord also shall roar out of
Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem [the holy church]; and
the heavens and the earth shall shake" (3:16). A church that has
no voice to shake sinners and professors, no voice that "turns
the world upside down," that makes not the wicked flee, the devil
howl, and persecution rage--that church may have "gods many," but
has not the true God dwelling in her; for, following the foregoing
the prophet says: "So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God
dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy,
and there shall no strangers pass through her any more" (v. 17).
The Lord wants his church so holy that no stranger to God will pass
through her, much less dwell and carry on business in her....
Let us now trace the heaven- and earth-shaking hosts of the
Almighty in the prophet Isaiah. "Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant
of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee"
(Isa. 12:6). Here is the power that does the shaking. A church that
has the great and Holy One in her midst always produces a commotion
in the world....
But who are required to do these things? Thus saith the Lord, "I
have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty
ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness" (chap.
13:3). The sanctified soul rejoices only in the exaltation and
glory of God; there is no principle left in the heart that seeks
self-aggrandizement. They even glory in being abased, if God is
thereby honored. Glory to his name!
Now observe the effect of lifting high the banner of holiness: "The
noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a
tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the
Lord of Hosts mustereth the host of the battle" (v. 4). A commotion
soon follows the definite testimony and "lifting up of holy hands
in the sanctuary" of the Lord: an army springs into existence; God
himself mustereth the host. Halleluiah!
"Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a
destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be faint,
and every man's heart shall melt.... Behold, the day of the Lord
cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land
desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it."
(vs. 6, 7, 9). This conflagration from the Almighty sweeps, with a
besom of destruction, all sinners from the land--out of the church.
If, therefore, the holiness movement lays waste some churches in
its course, it is simply because they are composed, in general, of
sinners. This fact also proves that it is the very crisis we are
here tracing in the Bible. It does not destroy true Christians
nor spiritual churches; but, saith the Lord, "I will cause the
arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness
of the terrible" (v. 11)....