Formerly printed under the title "After Holiness, What?"
DEDICATED
to
My wife, whose pure life and ceaseless prayers have contributed to this ministry.
INTRODUCTION
A few Sundays ago it was my privilege to hear Dr. T. M. Anderson preach. What a treat it was to sit at his feet again! I told him after the message that if I could preach like that I would never do anything else. He chose a text, analyzed it, illustrated it, and drove it home with a burning soul-passion. He has the gift of preaching, and thousands have been blessed by his ministry across the years.
The great theme of Dr. Anderson's preaching, as everyone who has heard him knows, is holiness as a second definite work of grace. He is never more at home than when preaching on some phase of this subject, and he seems to have an exhaustless supply of such messages. He does not stop with presenting the crisis of entire sanctification, but he also deals with the life which follows. Entire sanctification, as he says, is an end; but it is not only an end, it is also a beginning; it is the end of sin in the soul and the beginning of a life of spiritual development which should be exceptional.
One of the weaknesses of holiness teaching has often been that it failed to make any place for progress after one receives the second blessing. We have been so occupied with our emphasis upon the instantaneous character of the cleansing from sin that we have had no time for preaching growth in grace after sanctification.
Fortunately, Dr. Anderson has made a place in his ministry for development after entire sanctification, as well as for the crisis of entire sanctification. Further, in the volume which he now presents to the public, he deals especially with the expanding life of those who have obtained Christian perfection. Every preacher and layman should read this book. As food for the soul, it will stimulate growth in grace in the individual and an aggressive spirit in the Church. - Stephen S. White
FOREWORD
This little volume is an endeavor on the part of the writer to express in a measure an earnest desire to be a helper to the faith of the saints.
We have felt for some time that there was need for special emphasis being laid upon the personal responsibility which is enjoined upon the sanctified to maintain the experience of heart purity, and to live out that experience in the fullest possible measure to the glory of God.
To invest this treasure committed to them, the sanctified must be wise in the ways of the Lord, and watchful over their own bodies, souls, and spirits.
It is true that a lack of knowledge along these lines has resulted in many falling from this holy estate. It has resulted in an arrested development of the spiritual life, and a constant shallowness and meagerness in spiritual perceptions.
The Scriptures tell us that, "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon ... They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing." All this the righteous man should be to "shew that the Lord is upright."
If this little book shall add anything to the lives of the saints to cause them to be fat and flourishing, it will serve the purpose for which it has been written.
We believe that the proper incentive of all holy endeavors should be to seek the glory of God by letting our lights shine before men. Holiness touches every phase of human life in this world among men. To let their light shine the sanctified must bring their best efforts forward in a diligent application of themselves to fulfill their high calling in Christ Jesus. Sanctification involves them in the necessity for a patient continuance in well-doing.
What follows in this volume is not an exhaustive treatise on the subject. It is far from being exhaustive in any phase of the matter under consideration.
This is only an earnest effort to be suggestive along certain lines of truth pertaining to the life and experience of heart holiness. By touching upon these outstanding facts, this writer has hopes of inspiring a greater diligence, a careful watchfulness, and fervent service, on the part of God's holy people. - T. M. Anderson
SCRIPTURE LESSON
Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
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Tony Marshall Anderson was born in 1888. He was an evangelist and a college professor, and was associated with the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Church of the Nazarene. He was convinced that the people of God have not explored the boundless possibilities of prayer. He died in 1979.