strength;" and will continue "carnal, sold under sin," knowing that he may enjoy "the glorious liberty of the sons of God." The specific and exclusive object of the following treatise is to make known to all who would know and understand their privileges as "the sons of God" and "believers in Jesus," the forms of divine knowledge above referred to. To the prayerful examination of all who are "walking in the light," or are inquiring after the light, the work is commended, with the fervent desire and prayer of the author, that "their joy may be full."

INTRODUCTION

CONTENTS.

PART I.

OUT OF THE PRIMAL LIGHT INTO DARKNESS.

CHAP.

I. THE OFFICE AND WORK OF THE SPIRIT IN CONVINCING

OF SIN

II. CHARACTER OF THE CONVICTING ILLUMINATIONS OF

THE SPIRIT, AS ILLUSTRATED IN MY OWN EXPERI-

ENCE ·

.

III. A GREAT TEMPTATION, A FINAL VICTORY, AND ANOINT-

ING

IV. ASSURANCE OF HOPE

PAGE

I

5

V. THE GIFT OF GRACE

18

28

35

VI. THE TRUE AND PROPER FOOD FOR THE LAMBS OF THE

FLOCK

VII. THE FAITH OF THE CONVERT AS ECLIPSED, AND REN-

DERED WEAK AND INOPERATIVE, BY THE EXAMPLE

AND TESTIMONY OF OLD DISCIPLES, AND BY FALSE

TEACHING AND FALSE INTERPRETATION OF SCRIP-

TURE

VIII. TRIAL OF FAITH AND TRIUMPH OF PRINCIPLE

IX. LIGHT AND PRINCIPLES

X. A GROWING DIMNESS OF THE INNER LIGHT, AND A CON-

SEQUENT FEEBLE AND SICKLY DEVELOPMENT OF

THE INNER LIFE

XI. INTENSE STRUGGLES, CONFLICTS, FIGHTINGS, AND IN-

GLORIOUS DEFEATS

XV. PROTRACTED INQUIRIES AFTER THE MYSTERY OF THE

HIDDEN LIFE

CHAP.

PART II.

OUT OF DARKNESS INTO LIGHT.

I. THE LIGHT DAWNING

II. THE LIGHT COME, OR THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE DIVINE

III. SPEAKING TO THE PEOPLE WHEN STANDING IN THE

PAGE

123

VI. JESUS MANIFESTED TO THE BELIEVER

VII. THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT, OR THE DOCTRINE OF THE

BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST

VIII. RESULTS OF THE BAPTISM RECEIVED

156

160

IX. TRIALS OF FAITH, AND VICTORIES BY THE BLOOD OF

THE LAMB AND THE WORD OF HIS TESTIMONY

X. SUSTAINING AND ANTICIPATORY GRACE.

XI. THE INTERCESSORY FUNCTIONS OF THE SPIRIT

XII. CRUCIFIXION AND SANCTIFICATION OF THE PROPENSI-

TIES

XIII. PARENTAL DISCIPLINE OF THE SONS OF GOD

XIV. EVERLASTING CONSOLATION, OR OUR HIGHEST JOYS

WELLING OUT OF OUR DEEPEST SORROWS

XV. SPIRITUAL DISCERNING AND ENLIGHTENMENT

XVI. THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT, AND THE FLESH AND THE

SPIRIT

XVII. CHRIST IN US, AND CHRIST FOR US

XVIII. RELIGIOUS JOY

XIX. MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS AND SUGGESTIONS—

Sect. I. Giving Testimony in respect to Facts of

Personal Experience

Sect. II. Proposed Remedies for Pride of Heart

Sect. VI. When the Gospel will Exert its Full Power

over our Hearts and Character.

361

OUT OF DARKNESS INTO LIGHT.

INTRODUCTION.

I AM this day seventy-five years of age. Fifty-eight of these years have been professedly spent in the service of Christ. During this period, I have had varied forms of inward experience, and have observed important facts pertaining to the religious life experiences and facts, a presentation of some of which may be a matter of interest and profit to all believers, to those especially who are now inquiring after, or are walking in, "the glorious liberty of the sons of God." Especially will this be the case when such experiences and facts shall be placed in the clear light of those teachings of inspiration which bear upon such subjects. The period has arrived in the history of the Church, when, in a sense not common in preceding ages, God, by His Spirit, is "revealing His Son in believers," and causing Him to "be formed within them," and to be "in them the hope of glory." Christ, through the Spirit, is "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, and expounding unto us in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself," and is "opening our understanding, that we may understand the Scriptures." This He is doing not merely in reference "to what is written in

4

A

Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms, concerning Himself," but more especially amid the higher revelations of the New Testament concerning "the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in us, the hope of glory." Everywhere the question is being raised, namely, What are our revealed privileges and immunities as believers in Jesus, and as inheritors, through Him, of "the promise of the Spirit"? When these inquiries shall have been fully answered, "the light of the Church will have come, and the glory of the Lord will have risen upon her," and "the Gentiles will come to her light, and kings to the brightness of her rising." Having sojourned for about eighteen years in the dim twilight of that semi-faith which pertains to Christ almost exclusively in the sphere of our justification; having, during all these years, "inquired and searched diligently," but vainly, for the revealed and promised "liberty of the sons of God;" and having, during about forty years, dwelt and walked in the cloudless sunlight of " assurance of faith" in the same "Jesus, who is of God made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," and who "baptizes with the Holy Ghost," I have thought that a short account of some of the struggles and defeats experienced in the former state, and of "the spoils won in battle" in the latter, might be profitably "dedicated to maintain the house of God." The fixed habit of my life having been naturally a self-reflective one, has, in a special manner, I judge, qualified me in a good measure for the work before me. As a teacher of mental science, I have constantly habituated myself to a careful analysis of my own mental states, for the purpose of a clear understanding of the faculties, susceptibilities, and laws of my own intellectual, sensitive, moral, and spiritual nature, and