"We are free agents: but the freedom which we and all creatures possess is a dependent one. Of us it will remain eternally true, that 'we are not sufficient of ourselves to think' (much less do) 'anything as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is of God.' Light and grace are provided and rendered available; by availing ourselves of these we 'may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.' We are free to avail, or not to avail, ourselves of this light and grace. Refusing or neglecting to do this, we have no available power for anything but sin.
"Teaching the doctrine of ability as an absolute and not dependent power, tends to induce, not faith in God and His grace, but self-assurance, self-dependence, and the pride of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness. Let any angel in heaven, or any man on earth, entertain the idea that he has, as merely possessed of free will, sufficiency in himself, and he will fall in a moment, the mere entertaining the sentiment being itself a fall.
"The teaching of the doctrine of ability, as it then was taught, was a leading cause of the ultimate decline of those revivals. No man can, by any possibility, live the life in the flesh which God requires him to live, but upon the condition that he can say with Paul--Gal. ii. 20, as rightly translated by Alford--'I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me; yea, the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.'
"We may 'have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.' Without such grace such service is absolutely impossible to us; and we are free to accept or reject that grace. 'I,' says our Saviour, 'can of Mine own Self do nothing.' How infinite the presumption for us to entertain the sentiment that we, in the mere power of our own free wills, can do all the will of God, or anything at all!
"One other error, which almost universally obtained in those revivals, and which is lamentably common at the present time, demands special consideration as a condition of understanding the real causes of the decline of those revivals. I refer to the principle on which the young converts and older believers who desired to lead a new life, were started on the line of obedience.
"The sum of the instruction given was this: an utter renunciation of all sin, and, as far as possible, a full rectification of the effects of all acts of past disobedience, in the first instance; an absolute and undivided consecration of the entire being and possessions to Christ, and His service and glory, in the next; and, finally, starting into the future with full purpose of heart to render perfect obedience to every indication of the Divine will.
"No individual, I believe, ever disciplined believers so severely, and with such intense and tireless perseverance, on that principle, as my brother [Charles] Finney, before he learned the way of the Lord more perfectly. Appalled at the backslidings which followed those revivals, his most earnest efforts were put forth to induce among believers permanence in the Divine life. In accomplishing this, he knew of but one method, absolute and fixed renunciation of sin, consecration to God, and purpose of obedience.
"During his pastorate in Chatham Street Chapel, N.Y., for example, he held for weeks in succession special meetings of his church for perfecting this work, and never were a class of poor creatures carried through a severer process of discipline than were these. Years after, as their pastor informed me, those believers affirmed that they had never recovered from the internal weakness and exhaustion which had resulted from the terrible discipline through which Mr. Finney had carried them, and this was all the good that had resulted from his efforts.
"When he came to Oberlin, and entered upon the duties of his Professorship, he felt that God had given him a blessed opportunity to realise in perfection his ideal of a ministry for the churches. He had before him a mass of talented and promising theological students, who had implicit confidence in the wisdom of their teacher, and with equal sincerity would follow his instructions and admonitions.
"He accordingly, for months in succession, gathered together those students at stated seasons, instructed them most carefully in regard to the nature of the renunciation of sin, consecration to Christ, and purpose of obedience, required of them. Then, under his teachings and admonitions, they would renew their renunciations, consecrations, and purposes of obedience, with all the intensity and fixedness of resolve of which their natures were capable.
"The result, in every case, was one and the same, not the new life, and joy, and peace, and power that were anticipated, but groaning bondage under the law of sin and death. At the commencement, and during the progress of each meeting, their confessions and renunciations, their solemn consecrations and vows of obedience, were renewed, if possible, with fuller determination than ever before. Each meeting, however, was closed with the same dirge song:--
"Look how we grovel here below;
"Where is the blessedness I knew,
When first I saw the Lord?"
"Or:--
"Return, O Holy Dove, return.
"And as they went out, not their songs of joy and gladness were heard, but their groans became more and more terribly audible. 'They followed,' and followed hard, 'after the law of righteousness, but did not attain to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law;' that is, by self-originated efforts and determinations.
"How different from all this were the method and instructions and admonitions of our Saviour and His inspired apostles! 'Abide,' not in your own self-originated renunciations, consecrations, and purposes, but 'in Me, and I in you.' 'As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.'
"When the time came for Christ to assume the functions of the sacred office, in the ordinance of baptism He dedicated Himself to the work which the Father had given Him to do, and then, upon His knees, on the banks of Jordan, 'waited the promise of the Father,' until 'the Holy Ghost came upon Him.' Finally, after His sojourn in the wilderness, He went out upon His mission, not in the power of self-consecrations and self-determinations, but 'in the power of the Spirit.'
"At His last interview with His disciples, our Saviour, having laid out before them their world-mission, 'commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait the promise of the Father.' 'In prayer and supplication' they 'with one accord' did wait until 'the Pentecost was fully come,' when 'they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,' and went forth upon their mission, as Christ did upon His, 'in the power of the Spirit.'
"From that good hour, there was no going backward, no inquiries for 'the blessedness they knew when first they saw the Lord,' no want of strength to 'fly or go, to reach eternal joys,' and no want of grace to 'abound unto every good work.' 'God was their everlasting Light,' and from their inner being, as Christ had promised, there continuously welled out 'rivers of living water.'
"Two revealed facts clearly disclose the inspired method of strengthening and confirming the faith of converts and believers of every class. When Peter and John had come down to Samaria, what did they do with the young converts there? Did those inspired men stir up and exhort them to sin-renunciations, consecrations, and purposes of obedience, or to self-determined resolutions and efforts of any kind? Those men of God were better taught than to adopt any such course. On the contrary, they prayed for those converts, 'that they might receive the Holy Ghost,' and continued in prayer and the laying on of hands, until they did 'receive the Holy Ghost.'
"When Paul met certain disciples at Ephesus, what was his great inquiry of them, and what were his efforts in their behalf? 'Have ye received the Holy Ghost, since ye believed?' 'And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them.' Then, and not before, did he 'enter with them into the work of the Lord.' When will the Church and her teachers heed inspired example and teaching?
"Brother Finney and his teachings at that time were right as far as they went. In the absence of a total renunciation of self and sin, a full and entire consecration of the entire being and possessions to Christ and His kingdom and glory, and a hearty acceptance of the will of God as the absolute law of the present and future activity, the Holy Ghost will never be received. But if the convert or believer stops short with such renunciations, consecrations, and purposes, he will never advance a step in the direction of his purposes, but will remain, amid his broken resolutions, a groaning prisoner under the law of sin and death. Following out, on the other hand, the inspired method, 'his light will go forth as brightness, and his salvation as a lamp that shines.'"
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