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The Heart-Cry of Jesus

BY BYRON J. REES,

Author of "Christlikeness," "Hulda, the Pentecostal Prophetess,"
and "Hallelujahs from Portsmouth, Nos. 2 and 3."





DEDICATION.

TO MY MASTER, EVEN CHRIST.





INTRODUCTION.

THE NEED OF THE DAY.


The saying, "Necessity is the mother of Invention," finds nowhere
a more vivid illustration of its truth than in the publishing
enterprises of the modern Holiness movement. The onward movement
of the Holy Ghost along Pentecostal lines, convicting of
depravity, creating a clean-reading public, and endueing with
power both pulpit and pew, has resulted in a constant and growing
demand for full-salvation literature. Tens of thousands of pulpits
do an active business on both the wholesale and retail plan, with
science and philosophy as stock in trade. Famishing congregations
are proffered the bugs of biology, the rocks of geology, and the
stars of astronomy until their souls revolt, and they demand bread
and meat.

THE NEED BEING SUPPLIED.

The great soul-cry is being met and answered by the publication
and distribution of soul-feeding, spirit-inspiring, health-giving
Holiness books and papers. God is raising up writers and editors
from whose pens pour melted truths, to the edification and
blessing of thousands.

THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK.

In this little book we have a production in which the author has
made little attempt at the elucidation of doctrine or the waging
of controversy, but in great simplicity and directness he has
presented the truth with a view to helpfulness, desiring to
introduce really hungry souls into the Canaan life, and provide a
well-loaded table of rich provisions for those who are already "in
the Land."

READERS WILL BE REFRESHED.

We believe that there is a warmth, fervor and glow about the pages
of this volume which will be most refreshing to many, many
readers. May the Holy Spirit put His seal upon it and give it an
extensive circulation.

SETH C. REES.

PROVIDENCE, R. I., NOVEMBER 15, 1898.





PREFACE.

WHAT IS SANCTIFICATION?


No one who accustoms himself to the observation of spiritual
tides, winds and currents can be ignorant of the fact that the
devout men and women of the present are earnestly inquiring, "What
is sanctification? What does holiness mean?" They are demanding of
the pulpit and of the church editor something more than the time-
worn and moth-eaten excuses for not teaching a deeper work of
grace. The "seven thousand" who have not "bowed the knee" to the
modern Baals are insisting that, if God's Word teaches entire
sanctification for the disciple of Christ obtainable by faith now,
they must possess themselves of this heavenly grace.

THE AUTHOR'S DESIRE.

It is with the purpose and hope that some seeking heart may be
helped that these pages are penned. The author has purposely
avoided all controversial matter. We would not assume the role of
the doctrinaire even were we capable of it. "Not controversy, not
theology, but to save souls," as Lyman Beecher said when dying.

THE NEED OF SPEED.

This book has been written in the midst of laborious and unceasing
revival work. For this reason there has been no time to polish
sentences nor improve style. The object has been to get the truth
to the people in plain language, and to do it with despatch, for
the time is short, and men are being saved or damned with electric
speed.

THE BUZZARD AND VULTURE.

The buzzard and the vulture will find food if they look for it,
but with them we are not concerned. We are, however, terribly in
earnest to help hungry souls to a place of blessing and power.

May God take these leaves and make them "leaves of healing," if
not for "nations," at least for individuals.

BYRON J. REES.

NOVEMBER 14, 1898.





CONTENTS.


DEDICATION
INTRODUCTION
PREFACE
CONTENTS
CHRIST'S PRAYER
CHAPTER    I. A Word in the Prayer
CHAPTER   II. Some Errors
CHAPTER  III. Those for Whom Christ Prayed
CHAPTER   IV. Christ's Prayer Answered
CHAPTER    V. Christian Unity
CHAPTER   VI. Fearlessness
CHAPTER  VII. Responsiveness to Christ
CHAPTER VIII. Soul-Rest
CHAPTER   IX. Prayerfulness
CHAPTER    X. Success
CHAPTER   XI. Growth in Christliness of Life
EXPERIENCE





CHRIST'S PRAYER:

"SANCTIFY THEM THROUGH THE TRUTH; THY WORD IS TRUTH."





CHAPTER I.

A WORD IN THE PRAYER.


CHRIST'S WORDS.

All who really love Christ love His words. They may not always
fully understand their meaning, but they never reject any of them.
The very fact that any word has been on the lips of Christ and
received His sanction, gives it a sound of music to all who are
truly disciples of the Nazarene.

MOTHER'S WORDS.

The words that your mother used frequently--are there any words
quite the same to you? She may be resting under the solemn pines
of a silent cemetery, but, to this hour, if anyone uses one of her
favorite words, instantly the heart leaps in answer, and the mind
flies back to her, and the fancy paints her as you knew her in the
garden or at the fireside or by the window. It lies in the power
of a single word to make the eyes fill and the throat ache because
of its association with the voice of a queenly mother.

A MAN'S TESTIMONY.

Thus it is with Christ and HIS words. It matters not where we meet
the word, if it is Christ's we are touched and made tender. An
aged man stands in a prayer-meeting in a bare and cheerless hall,
and says in broken and faltering voice, "The dear Lord has
blessedly SANCTIFIED my heart," and like a flash the room
lightens, and the whole place seems changed and made cheery. The
heart cries, "That is my Master's word," and the entire being is
attentive and interested.

JESUS' LIFE DEAR.

Yes, to the really regenerated soul everything connected with
Jesus is dear. The place of His birth, the land of His ministry,
the garden of His agony, the mount of His crucifixion, the Olivet
of His ascension, all these are illumined with a peculiar and
special light. The mind dwells lovingly on His parables, ponders
deeply His sayings, lingers tenderly over His words.

WE WELCOME THE WORD.

We will NOT therefore shrink from the Word of our Lord:
"Sanctify." It may have been stained by the slime of some unworthy
life, or soiled by the lips of men who prated about
sanctification, but knew nothing of its nature; yet, for all that,
since the word is Christ's we hail its enunciation with gladness.

CHRIST'S BURDEN.

The high-priestly prayer of Christ was distinctively for the
disciples. Indeed, He SAYS: "I pray not for the world." That is to
say, the disciples need a peculiar and special work of grace, one
which must follow, not precede, conversion, and therefore not to
be received by the world. In this prayer the loving Master
revealed to His immediate disciples, and to those of all ages and
climes, the burning desire of His heart concerning His followers.
The petition ascends from His immaculate heart like incense from a
golden censer, and it has for its tone and soul, "Sanctify them
through thy truth." His soul longed for this work to be completed
quickly. During the last days of His ministry He talked frequently
of the coming Comforter. He admonished them to "tarry" until an
enduement came to them. He knew that unless they were energized
with a power, to which they were as yet strangers, their work
would be worse than futile.

HE PRAYED FOR SANCTIFICATION.

It is for the SANCTIFICATION of the disciples that Christ prayed.
He did not ask that they might fill positions of honor and trust;
He knew that there is no nobility but that of goodness. It was
more important that the early preachers should be holy men than
that they should be respected and honored. He did not pray for
riches for them; He knew too well the worthlessness of money in
itself. He did not desire for them thrones, nor culture, nor
refinement, nor name.

    "'Tis only noble to be good.
     True hearts are more than coronets,
     And simple faith than Norman blood."

So Jesus prayed that these men who had for three years been His
daily and constant companions should receive an experience which
should make them INTENSELY GOOD; not "goody-goody," which is very
different, but heartily and wholly spiritual and godly.

THE MEN WE LOVE.

The men whose names are brightening as the ages fly, were not men
who were always free from prejudices and blunders. They were not
men, as a rule, from university quadrangles nor college cloisters.
They were not the wise, nor the erudite, nor the cultivated, nor
the rich. They were the good men. Brilliant men tire us; wits soon
bore us with their gilt-edged nothings, but men with clean, holy
hearts, fixed convictions, bold antipathies to sin, sympathetic
natures and tender consciences never weary us, and they bear the
intimate and familiar acquaintance which so often causes the
downfall of the so-called "great" in one's estimation.

THE PERSONAL TOUCH.

We may forget an eloquent sermon pilfered from Massillon, but we
will never forget a warm handclasp and a sympathetic word from an
humble servant in God's house. Jesus never went for the crowds--he
hunted the individual. He sat up a whole night with a questioning
Rabbi; talked an afternoon with a harlot who wanted salvation;
sought out and found the man whom they cast out of the synagogue,
and saved a dying robber on an adjacent cross. We do not reach men
in great audiences generally. We reach them by interesting
ourselves in them individually; by lending our interest to their
needs; by giving them a lift when they need it.

SANCTIFIED FISHERMEN.

Jesus with divine sagacity knew that if these untutored fishermen
were to light up Europe and Asia with the torch of the gospel they
must have an experience themselves which would transform them from
self-seeking, cowardly men to giants and heroes.

THE CARNAL MIND.

While the true Christian loves Christ and His words, while his
higher and more spiritual nature says "Amen" to the Lord's
teaching, yet it must not be forgotten that the "carnal mind"
which remains, "even in the heart of the regenerate," is "enmity
against God." There is a dark SOMEWHAT in the soul that fairly
hates the word "sanctification." Theologians call it "inbred sin"
or "original depravity"; the Bible terms it the "old man," "the
old leaven," "the root of bitterness," etc. Whatever its name it
abhors holiness and purity, and though the regenerate man loves
Christ and His words, he does so over the vehement protest of a
baser principle chained and manacled in the basement dungeon of
his heart.

GEORGE FOX.

The devout of all churches recognize the existence of an inner
enemy who bars the gate to rapid spiritual progress. George Fox,
the pious founder of the Friends' Society, said in relation to an
experience which came to him: "I knew Jesus, and He was very
precious to my soul, but I found something within me which would
not always keep patient and kind. I did what I could to keep it
down, but it was there. I besought Jesus that He would do
something for me, and when I gave Him my will He came into me and
cast out all that would not be patient, and all that would not be
sweet, and that would not be kind, and then He shut the door."

"SIN IN BELIEVERS."

John Wesley preached a sermon on "Sin in Believers" which is
extant and widely read. All churches recognize it in their creeds,
and all have provision in their dogmas for its expulsion before
entrance into heaven. The Catholics provide a convenient
Purgatory; other denominations glorify Death and ascribe to it a
power which they deny to Christ; while still others rely on growth
to cleanse from all sin and get us ready for the glory-world. The
Bible, however, with that sublime indifference to all human
opinions and theories becoming in divine authority, reveals a
SALVATION FROM ALL SIN HERE AND NOW.

The word sanctify means simply "to make holy" (L., sanctificare =
sanctus, holy, + ficare, to make). The work of sanctification
removes all the roots of bitterness and destroys the remains of
sin in the heart.

UNREASONABLE ANTAGONISM.

What sound sense can there be in antagonizing a blessing which is
nothing more or less than cleanness--mental, moral and physical
cleanness. The kind of character that would wittingly fight
holiness would object to a change of linen.

A CHURCH IN JERSEY.

The eagerness with which truly devout people welcome the preaching
of full salvation is refreshing. It was the writer's privilege to
hold an eight-day meeting with a church in Central New Jersey. The
church was in excellent condition, for the pastor, a godly and
earnest man, had faithfully proclaimed justification and its
appropriate fruits. Nearly all the members were praying,
conscientious and zealous Christians. When, at the first meeting,
which was the regular Sunday morning service, the experience of
sanctification was presented, over one hundred persons arose, thus
signifying their desire for the precious grace!

OPEN THE ALTAR!

The language of the child of God is, "Does God want me sanctified?
Then open the altar for I am coming." He does not tarry; he does
not higgle and hesitate; he makes for the "straw pile" if in a New
England camp; the "saw-dust" if down South; the "altar rail" if in
a spiritual church; to his knees at any rate, for God's will he
desires and must have. Thank God he can have it!





CHAPTER II.

SOME ERRORS.


THE BEAR-SKIN.

Satan is very busily engaged in destroying and misrepresenting
God's best experiences. He slanders the work of God in order that
His children may not come into their inheritance. The "bear-skin"
frightens the would-be seeker and keeps him out of the Canaan
land.

ROSENTHAL.

Darkness hates light. The Prince of Darkness dreads truth and
light, for he knows that if God's children ever see sanctification
as it is, there will be a general stampede for consecration. If
the public really believed that Rosenthal would play the piano in
Infantry Hall on a certain evening, and that there would be no
charge for admittance, South Main street would be black with
people hours before the doors were opened. If the church really
believed that God would let them into an experience where sonatas
and minuets and bridal marches and "Mondnacht" and the "Etude in C
sharp minor" would be heard all the time, and free of charge, all
the bishops and the big preachers and little evangelists and
exhorters and ministers would be besieged by a grand eager throng
of people, crying with one accord, "What must I do to be
sanctified?" Lord, hasten the day!

THE DEVIL STIRRED.

When a man is awakened and says, "What is sanctification anyway?"
then the devil bestirs himself to silence the soul's questionings.
Blessed is the man who will not be satisfied with anything short
of "Thus saith the Lord." Hound the lies of hell to their covert;
run down the false reports, and determine the truth.

A CHIMERA.

One of the lies which Satan is fond of circulating is that
sanctification is a life free from temptation. When this is

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