Perfect Love

Perfect love constitutes evangelical perfection, the sum of all duties, the bond which binds all the virtues into unity.

As we stand midway between the perfect estate of paradise lost and of paradise regained, regretting the one and aspiring to the other, but excluded so long as we are in the flesh, our gracious God, through the mediation of Christ, commissions the Holy Ghost to come down and open the gates of a new paradise of love made perfect, love casting out all fear, love fully shed abroad in our hearts.

Love is the fulfilling of the law. To fulfil is perfectly to keep, not the old Adamic law, but the law of the new Adam, the Lord from heaven. "Fulfil ye the law of Christ, the royal law of liberty." This law is graciously adapted to our diminished moral capacity, dwarfed and crippled by original and actual sin.

All there is left of us after sin has spread its blight may be filled with the fullness of God. Every faculty may be energized, every capacity be filled, and every particle and fibre of the being be pervaded with the love of Christ, so that the totality of our nature may be subsidized in the delightful employment of love, attesting itself by obedience, rejoicing evermore, praying without ceasing, and in every thing giving thanks. Says Wesley, "I know of no other Christian perfection."

Predestined to Holiness

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ; according as He hath chosen us [believers] in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love."
— Ephesians i. 3, 4.

The doctrine of predestination always has reference to holiness. God, by an immutable decree, has made entire sanctification the goal attainable by all believers; from eternity He has determined that those who, by a free compliance with the conditions, are adopted into His family, "should be conformed to the image of His Son," not only in the distant future, but now, in the present life. "As He is, so are we in this world."

The broad line of demarcation between the children of God and the children of the devil lies in this one word, sin. "Whosoever has been born of God [and so continues] is not sinning, because His seed, the new principle of love, remaineth in him, and he is not able to be sinning, [as a habit,] because he has been born of God" [and so remains]. The significance of the Greek tenses is shown in the parenthetic words, the perfect tense denoting an act whose effect remains to the present time, and the present tense indicating an habitual or oft-recurring act.

Ritualism and Spirituality

QUESTION: Does ritualism promote spirituality?

ANSWER: I think that a simple prescribed form of administering the two sacraments by insuring their dignified and orderly celebration promotes spirituality. But as synonymous with Tractarianism, which apes Romanism by an ornate and spectacular form, eucharistic vestments, and genuflextions to a crucifix, ritualism, by dazzling the senses, promotes æstheticism rather than spirituality.

— Steele's Answers p. 74.

Life Insurance

QUESTION: Should the father of a family keep up his life insurance if he is able?

ANSWER: Yes, by all means that are honorable.

— Steele's Answers p. 74.

Christ: Founder of a New Order

When sin had discrowned Adam and his sons it was determined in the Council of the Trinity that a new and superior order should be constructed out of the ruined race. A second Adam appears on earth the first term of the glorious series, the new founder of the new order. He is the norm or model by which the new creation will proceed.

All those sons of fallen Adam who by faith yield to the transfiguring power assume the essential attributes of the second Adam, the Lord from heaven. To adopt the phrase of modern philosophy, a new race is to be evolved. In all evolution there must first be involution. You must put into the first term all that you take out. Jesus Christ is the first term. "And it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell." "For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."

On Luke 21:35

QUESTION: Explain "all on earth" in Luke 21:35: "For so shall it come upon all them on the face of the earth."

ANSWER: The Greek word is sometimes translated "earth" and sometimes "land." It probably refers to the land of the Jews.

— Steele's Answers p. 74.

Had the Rich Young Man Kept the Whole Law?

QUESTION: Did the rich young man keep all the commands, or only those relating to our fellowmen?

ANSWER: Though only those in the second table were named by Christ, it is highly probable that the young man professed to have kept the entire Decalogue.

— Steele's Answers p. 73.

Physical Disability Obscuring Communion with God

The author ... after passing his eightieth birthday was so violently prostrated by pneumonia that he and all his neighbors thought the time of his departure had come. He knows not for what purpose his life on the earth has been extended, unless it is to publish a view of Christian experience in the sick chamber which may enable some other "forlorn and shipwrecked brother, seeing, to take heart again."

In common with many, I may say a majority of Christian teachers, I have taught that nothing but sin of commission or omission can obstruct communion with our heavenly Father; that the pure in heart may always "see God" by apprehending His presence and favor. I have supposed that when the poet Keble penned this couplet he deprecated sin only:

"O may no earthborn cloud arise
To hide Thee from Thy servant's eyes."

Anger

QUESTION: It has been said that anger is proper when the sinful element is absent. What is that element?

ANSWER: A malicious ill will, a feeling of personal resentment. When Christ was angry he was also grieved at the conduct of the Jews. He had no ill will, but rather love, towards them — not a love of complacency and delight, but a love of pity. Grief implies love. "He hates the sin and yet the sinner loves," not approves. This will be the kind of anger attributed to Christ when as judge "the wrath of the Lamb" will be manifested in the final sentence of the wicked. Bishop William Taylor says: "At the funeral of every lost soul, the procession of mourners will be headed by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

— Steele's Answers p. 73.

Altar Advice

QUESTION: Is it right to exhort seekers at the altar to believe that God does now forgive their sins instead of trusting in Christ to forgive till assured of it by the witness of the spirit?

ANSWER: Some have been saved under such advice, not because the advice was good, but because they did rely on Christ; but others have been bewildered and thrown into despair. This erroneous advice implies that the seeker, and not God, is to decide when the conditions of salvation have been complied with. This is God's province. Some say, trust the Word, for it contains the assurance of salvation; "believe that Christ does not cast you out, but receives you." The Bible can no more tell a man his sins are forgiven than the revised Statutes of a State can tell a convict in prison that he is pardoned. This is the prerogative of the Governor. Nor should anyone seeking entire sanctification say that the work is done because he has done his part, but he realizes no change. This implies that God is belated in keeping his promises. The safe advice is, trust till you know, then confess to the glory of God.

— Steele's Answers pp 72, 73.