HIS INWARD STRUGGLES.

23

in ridding you of them,' he said to me, 'others would soon arise; there is a shorter, deeper, more complete way of annihilating them. Let Christ be really to you the Son of God, the Saviour, the Author of eternal life! Only be firmly settled in His grace, and then these difficulties of detail will never stop you; the light which proceeds from Christ will disperse all your darkness.' The old divine had shewn me the way: I saw it was the right one, but to follow it was a hard task."

The way. Yes, indeed! and the right one. Happy for D'Aubigné that he saw it! Happy that its hardness did not keep him back from it! While they waited at Kiel for the steamboat, they devoted part of the time to reading the Word of God together—a pattern for all detained Christian travellers. Rieu was chaplain. D'Aubigné says of him that he had even then far outstripped both himself and M. Monod in the divine life. Two years after, he finished his brilliant career upon earth by a triumphant departure to heaven. His converse was very sweet. They all three communicated their thoughts to each other on the Word of God, but Rieu brought out the hidden riches of the book of God most abundantly.

We were studying the Epistle to the Ephesians,” says D'Aubigné, "and had got to the end of the third chapter. When we read the two last verses, 'Now unto Him who is able to do EXCEEDING ABUNDANTLY above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory,' &c.; this expression fell upon my soul as a revelation from God.

'He can do by His power,' I said to myself, above all we ask, above all even that we think, nay, EXCEEDING ABUNDANTLY above all' A full trust in Christ for the work to be done within my poor heart now filled my soul. We all three knelt down, and, although I had never fully confided my inward struggles to my friends, the prayer of Rieu was filled with such admirable faith, as he would have uttered had he known all my wants. When I arose, in that inn-room at Kiel, I felt as if my wings were renewed as the wings of eagles.' From that time forward I comprehended that all my own efforts were of no avail; that Christ was able to do all by His 'power that worketh in us;' and the habitual attitude of my soul was to lie at the foot of the cross, crying to Him, ‘Here am I, bound hand and foot, unable to move, unable to do the least thing to get away from the enemy who oppresses me. Do all Thyself. I know that Thou wilt do it. Thou wilt even do exceeding abundantly above all that I ask.'

"I was not disappointed; all my doubts were removed, my anguish quelled, and the Lord 'extended to me peace as a river.' Then I could comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. Then was I able to say, 'Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.""

In these sketches of experience, nothing has been

said in either case touching the question of entire instantaneous sanctification, nor Christian perfection. Neither the great reformer nor the great historian of the Reformation made any profession of perfection themselves. Indeed, Luther expressly disclaims it, and D'Aubigné records the disclaimer. Yet in both, the soul and marrow of the full experience of salvation at the last, was the perception and the reception of the Lord Jesus as their righteousness in the sense of sanctification, as already before they had taken Him as their righteousness in the sense of justification; for these senses are both included in the term "righteousness of God," as used by Paul, and exulted in by Luther, and in both senses Christ is complete to the believer, and in both, the believer is complete in Christ. Luther and D'Aubigné alike hungered after righteousness, true holiness, and either would fain have satisfied himself with husks from any hand, if he could, but he could not. God had in store for both, the true bread that cometh down from heaven to the full. Both struggled long and manfully, each in his own way, both in vain, until each gave up his own way, and took the Lord Jesus as THE WAY. Both fought resolutely, and were foiled in every onset, and would have fallen at last slain and conquered, had not God taught them the sweet truth uttered by the loving disciple, "This is the victory that overcometh,—even your faith." By faith at last, by full trust in Jesus, both conquered an abiding peace, and both gained the full salvation.

To these examples scores upon scores might be added of the same class; those who have given themselves wholly to Jesus, and taken Jesus wholly to themselves, and so found the abiding sunshine, and the serene sky of full salvation, but who yet make no profession of perfection, but, like Luther and D'Aubigné, disclaim it. The memoirs of the great and good, gone to their reward, abound in such, and the living witnesses are many. Richard Baxter, Jonathan Edwards, Hewitson, M'Cheyne, Mrs Edwards, Adelaide Newton, and a host of others. In the "Life and Times of Richard Baxter," a very circumstantial account is given of this great man's experience; quite as distinct as either Luther's or D'Aubigné's, both as to his final full apprehension of Christ as all in all, and as to his conversion years before. President Edwards himself has given to the world a sketch as remarkable as either, known to be the experience of his own beloved wife, one of the happiest Christians that ever lived. And in the details he has spread out of his own inner life, if the moments of the first and the last great transitions are less distinctly traced, the same fulness of faith at the last, and the same precious results are as clearly seen.

The memoirs of Hewitson by Baillie, and of Adelaide Newton by the same, furnish each a lovely instance also. Hewitson describes a long and severe struggle years after his conversion, terminating finally in such an apprehension of Christ in His fulness, as

his righteousness and sanctification, as filled him with heavenly consolations, and abode with him ever after.

But we have no space even for references to each of the noble many in this bright cloud of witnesses, much less for their experience in detail. Other classes must be compared with this, if we would gain a clear comprehension of the whole subject. We will call this class THE LUTHERAN. Another may be called THE WESLEYAN, and a third THE OBERLINIAN. The Wesleyans received their first light in this matter, and their first impulse, from the Moravian brethren of Germany. And the Oberlinians took their terms, and some colours and shades of view, from the Wesleyans. Both use the terms "perfect love," "Christian perfection," entire sanctification," to describe the experience in question, and "doctrine of sanctification," or "doctrine of holiness," as expressive of their creed about it. The Oberlinians differ from the Wesleyans in their philosophy of the will of man, and of the law of God. Their view of the claims of the law as graduated to the sinner's ability, enables them to hold and profess perfect sanctification when they come to yield wholly to the known will of God, and take Christ wholly as their righteousness and true holiness. The Wesleyans admit the claims of the law of God as requiring absolute perfection, like the spotless purity of Jesus, and of the holy angels; and make no professions of it, but only of Christian perfection, making a broad distinction between Christian and angelic perfection.